Being A Brother
by Rosesdancinginmymind
Summary: Regina, Neal family centric stuff. Was going to be a one-shot but I've decided to make this a series of one shots between Regina and Neal. This is AU as it assumes that Rumpel is Regina's father. (Some mild SQ but not the main focus) *Update - now complete*
1. The Revelation

_AU: I still don't own the show or its characters. This is just a one-shot that popped into my brain. Hope you like. _

You stand in your father's shop as Regina pushes her mother's heart back into her body. Whoa, you think, it's going to take a while to get used to magic again. You see Cora grab her chest before a truly happy smile appears on her face. You look to Regina who has a bright hopeful smile on her face but is also rocking on her heels. You get that. Let's face it re-uniting with parents is somewhat stressful. You look at your father, Cora notices and after a quick glance at her daughter walks over and murmurs something you don't understand. As you look on, the wound over his heart disappears, he sits up stunned. "Cora" he says, "thank you"

She smiles, "That's alright," her smile falters, she looks at Regina, she looks at you and then back to Rumple. She sighs. "Mother?" Regina asks tentatively.

She gets up briefly, cups Regina's face in her hands and says "I love you. You would have been enough." She pauses, "You are enough" she says brushing away a tear from Regina's cheek. This is a moment, you think, that you should probably have left them to have alone.

It is then that Cora turns to your father and says "She's yours"

"What?!" all three of you yell at once.

Her gaze doesn't leave Rumpel's, "When I took out my heart I was already pregnant, I should have told you. I wish I had. I'm sorry" she looks remorseful but you don't care. You're stunned. You look at your father, he looks shocked, he sits down and says "she's my daughter" clearly processing this information. You look over at Regina who looks absolutely heartbroken, tears streaming down her face as she says "Why didn't you tell me?"

Cora turns, "Regina, I'm sorry, back then all I cared about was power, I couldn't tell you. Now I realise that was a mistake. I want you to know the truth now" she moves to soothe her tears but instead Regina yells "No, don't touch me! Just leave me alone!" and runs out of the store stumbling a little in her heels. Rumpel looks at Cora and you can tell that he is about to start yelling. Neither seem to realise the fact that you are a) still in the room and b) you just found you have a sister, who just so happens to be the evil queen and one of your son's mothers. Holy crap. You have to get out of here. You turn away from them and sneak your way out of the store.

* * *

Your feet seem to move automatically to the docks. Water has always calmed you. Your brain is a whirl of thoughts as you think about your ridiculously complicated family tree. 3 days ago, all you had was a fiancée and some really old pizza. Now you have a son, a father and a sister. It is a lot to take in. You feel the urge to run away but know you can't. You have responsibility now to Henry, you owe him the chance at family, you owe him a father since you weren't there. Thinking about Henry leads you to Regina. You wonder how she is handling this. You know from Emma that she was the one who cast the curse, you know your father manipulated her into doing it, that he used the death of her true love to teach her magic, that she raised your son and he is from what you can tell in the short amount of time you've known him an amazing person, you think that perhaps she can't be all that bad to have raised a kid like that. You think that had you gone through what she has to find out that the two people who orchestrated your becoming the evil queen are your own parents has got to be mind-blowingly shit. You get closer to the harbour and see a figure sitting on the edge of the pier, legs dangling over the edge. You can tell that person is crying. As you walk over you see that it is Regina. Your sister, you think. You wonder if you should approach her. Well, you think, I am her brother after all, I should probably try. You wonder if anyone recently has been nice to her or looked out for her and you realise that as her brother that is your job now.

"Hey" you say sitting down next to her.

She turns to you; face a mixture of surprise and devastation, "What are you doing here?"

"I like looking at the waves. They make me feel calm and given what just happened I needed to clear my head," you admit, "You?"

She stays silent for a moment before saying "Same here"

Neither of you say anything for a while, you just sit staring at the waves until you can't take the silence anymore, so you say the first thing that pops into your head:

"You know technically you're an Aunt Mommy"

She gives you a confused look, cursed towns must not get ABC comedies, you think.

"Well because you're Henry's mom right?" she nods. "And I'm his Dad. And from what we've just learnt you are my sister which makes you his Aunt. So you're an Aunt Mommy" at this she smiles and starts to laugh. It's infectious, you can't help but laugh too.

"Henry's going to have fun drawing up his family tree" she says about a split second before she starts to cry again. You tentatively put an arm around her, when she doesn't she shake it off or burn you alive with a fireball you squeeze her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay" it's not the best thing to say but you're not very good at reassuring people. "Do you want to talk about?" you ask.

"We don't have to if you don't want to"

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" you pause, are you her older brother? In Enchanted Forest years you definitely are but in this land? "How old are you in this land? I'm 36"

"I'll be 35 next month, so yes you are my older brother" she says.

"I don't know how to feel about all of this" she says after a couple of moments. You look at her. She continues, "It's just up until a month ago I thought my parents were both dead. Now my mother is in this land and apparently never did love me until today and my father is the man who taught me magic and manipulated me into casting the curse. I don't know what to feel about them. And what about my daddy? I mean he raised me. Did he know? Maybe that's why he never protected me from her" you stop her there because it's a bad path to go down, "From what I've heard of your father, he was a good man and he loved you, if he could have protected you he would have done. Your mother was horrible but you believe in redemption don't you?" she nods, "So maybe you give her a chance, that's what I'm doing with our father, I mean I just found out he killed my mother for running away with Captain Hook, plus he abandoned me to a portal because his magic was more important". She sniffs before saying, "He wanted to find you though, he went through the trouble of creating a curse and having me cast it just to find you so he must love you"

"Either way, he's not winning any father of the year awards anytime soon" you joke in an attempt to relieve the tension.

It works, she laughs, "This is certainly going to make for awkward family time"

"Yeah"

"How do you think Henry will react?"

"I don't know" and you don't.

"He does seem to love his biological family though" she says bitterly, you give her a concerned look, "He thinks I'm evil, he chooses them over me. He barely knows them and straightaway they're Grandma Snow and Grampa David. I'm happy he's happy but I raised him!" she stands at that last part her fists clenched. You stand too, "I know, it's unfair, geez the kid already calls me Dad and I barely know him, he's quick to form attachments I guess but even though I've only known him a few days I know he loves you" "He does?" "Yeah, he told me he misses you" and he did, you and he had a good chance to chat on the boat and he was the one who told him what it was like to have Regina has a mom, "he told me that you were a really good mom and that he does love Emma she doesn't know stuff like you do" she smiles, "like what?" You think back over the stuff he told you, "Like to cut the crusts off his sandwiches or that he'd rather watch Batman over Superman, you've got to understand that Henry is just excited over having loads of new family members but that doesn't mean he doesn't still see you as his mom"

She smiles then and hugs you. It's only a small hug but still. "I'm an Aunt Mommy right?"

"How about you're Henry's mother and my sister? Those are the only two titles that matter to me anyway"

"Thank you Neal" she says "you're Henry's father and my brother. I'm quite used to being an only child though, what do brothers and sisters do?"

"I don't know I was an only child too. From what television has taught me we joke, we chat occasionally, bitch about our parents and team up against them"

She chews on her bottom lip, "I can do that" she says. "Do you want to get coffee?"

"Sure" you say. She leads you over to a place called Granny's Diner. "First one's on me" she offers. "Okay" you smile, you started today thinking you were going to lose your father, you're finishing it with your father very much by the way he yells out "Bae" to you from across the street. You ignore him and turn to enter Granny's so you can have coffee with your sister.


	2. Fistfight

_AN: I was going to go the library today to study but it's raining so I decided to write up this instead. I still do not own Once. There's a little bit of swearing in this one but I don't think it's that bad but I know some people don't like that sort of thing. Hope you enjoy the second part and if you guys have any ideas for other one-shots I can put into this then I'm happy to have them. Thank you for reading and reviewing the first chapter as well:)_

You are sitting in the diner with your father and it is so wonderfully awkward. You're both sitting silently occasionally making attempts at small talk whilst you wait for Regina who is conspicuously absent.

"Where do you think she is?" he asks, you catch the look on his face and see it is the same one Regina has when she thinks Henry is avoiding her.

"I don't know, maybe she got caught up at work" this could be true. After much cajoling and persuasion there is a tentative truce between Regina, Rumpel and the Charmings. They've let her be Deputy Mayor after begrudgingly agreeing with Emma's point that her parents have no idea how to run a town.

You take a sip of your coffee and think about how things have changed the past couple of weeks. You think about Henry who you get to see on Thursdays and sometimes when he's at Regina's she invites you and Emma over as well. He certainly seems happier than when you first met him in Manhattan. He also took the news about Rumpel being Regina's father surprisingly well, saying that it didn't really change much since she was still his mom.

"How are you doing after what happened with Tamara?" your father asks snapping you out of your reverie. Oh yes, Tamara, the pair of you broke up a week ago after you returned home early only to discover her and Greg together. Turns out it had been going on for over a month. You sigh. The first couple of days after that break up passed in a haze of beer and sleep until Regina and Emma showed up on your doorstep. The pair of them after the recent revelations seem to have formed a rather odd sort of friendship. Anyway they kicked your sorry butt out of bed and basically told you to get your shit together. The support was new to you but welcome. You realise your father is still awaiting an answer. "Better than I was. I'll be happy when they leave town" you know they're planning on leaving tomorrow. She stopped by yesterday to apologise and say goodbye. You told her to save it. You really don't want her apologies right now. Your phone rings interrupting another bout of awkward silence between you and Rumpel.

"Hello"

"Emma, hey what's up?"

"Uh could you come over to the station?"

"Now?"

"Yeah"

"Can it wait? I'm having coffee with my dad right now and we're waiting on Regina"

"Yeah I know, she's here"

"Why?"

"Just come over"

"Fine, I'll see you in about 5 minutes"

"Thanks. Bye"

You turn to your father. "Regina's at the sheriff's station"

"Why?"

"I don't know. Emma just called asking me to come over."

"I'm coming with you" he says standing leaving you in no real position to argue.

* * *

You both arrive at the station to see Tamara with an ice pack in the waiting area and Emma holding tissues to Regina's nose in the Sheriff's office. Not what you expected at all. Your father is currently shooting death glares at Tamara who meekly says "Hi Neal"

"Tamara" you say before walking into the office and going over to Emma and Regina.

You look over Regina and see that as well as a nosebleed she has some cut-up knuckles and a rather impressive black eye forming, "So what happened?" she tries to answer but whatever she says is muffled by the tissues Emma is using.

Emma answer on her behalf, "I was patrolling when I came across your sister and Tamara beating the crap out of each other"

"Professionally put Sheriff" Regina smirks.

"Professional?" she asks incredulously, "you were just caught fighting in the streets!"

"It wasn't in the streets per se, more of an alleyway" she corrects.

"Oh yeah, much better" she pulls the tissues away, "Okay, I think the bleeding has stopped, do you want some ice for your eye?"

She shakes her head, "Thanks for the tissues Emma"

She smiles, "No problem, I'll give you guys a minute" she turns and leaves.

"So," you say pulling up a chair next to Regina, "did you start it?"

She gives you a mock outraged glare "As if I would do such a thing?" you simply give her a knowing look and she shrugs, "Fine, I was leaving the office to come to lunch when she came up to me to talk about you"

"About me?" you interrupt.

"Yes, some nonsense about apologising but I didn't want to talk her given what she did to you and I may have told her so. Some insults may have been thrown around and then one thing sort of led to another and I may have punched her but she deserved it"

You smile, "You may have punched her?"

"Fine I did punch her"

"Why?"

She gives you a confused look. "Why did you punch her?"

"Because she cheated on you with that Greg guy and no-one hurts my brother like that" she says the last part proudly.

You grin. Yes, she may have got into a fight but she did it to defend you. "Thank you" you say. "How are you going to explain it to Henry?" you watch her face and realise that she may not have thought of that. "I don't know"

You smile and say "I'll think of something to tell him. Least I can do, you defended me, admittedly you look in a lot worse shape than she does so perhaps you should save the ass-kicking for someone else, but since you did it already I shall save you from the questioning of Henry"

She laughs. "How very gallant. She may be a bitch for what she did to you but she does have a mean right hook"

"Yeah, she used to kickbox back in Manhattan"

"That would have been useful to know"

"Admittedly it will make for quite the headline in the paper tomorrow, 'Deputy Mayor Caught in Backalley Brawl' your parents will be so proud, oh by the way dad's here"

She starts off laughing but then registers the last part, "Firstly I'm sure it won't be headline worthy news, secondly, my mother is probably going to have some sort of fit and thirdly what do you mean dad is here?"

This question is interrupted by the rather loud shout of "SHE DID WHAT?!"

"I'm guessing Emma told him what happened" you say, "We should probably get out there"

She nods and you both exit the office to Rumpel yelling at Tamara, "First you betray my son and now you attack my daughter, you're lucky I don't curse you for all eternity!"

"She hit me first" Tamara meekly defends herself.

"Irrelevant" he scoffs, "Leave now and be warned if you harm either of my children again I will find you and I will make you pay"

She nods in understanding before rushing out of the office.

"Was that really necessary?" Emma asks noticing both you and Regina staring open-mouthed at your father.

"Yes, nobody hurts my kids" you smile.

Then he turns round and says the dreaded words "Regina Maria Mills we need to have a talk" you hear her gulp beside you, after all the middle name drop is the most terrifying technique a parent has.


	3. Confrontations and Conversations Part 1

_AN: I wasn't going to update this until tomorrow but with no new Once or TWD to watch I had time to type it up today. This one has some angstiness and then some childishness. I still don't Once. Hope you like this chapter :)_

She doesn't want to talk to him. You know that. Hell she's been avoiding him as best she can, as far as you can tell they've talked maybe 3 or 4 times mostly with you as a buffer. So you can tell that when he says those dreaded words that she probably isn't all that willing to go along. You look at her and you can tell she's in no real mood to be scolded by a man she's still pretty pissed at and by the middle name drop you can tell a scolding is coming.

After several tense moments where you swear you could probably hear a pin drop if you tried she speaks. "Fine. Let's talk" her tone is icy and clipped. You and Emma share a look and decide to give them the office whilst you wait in the hallway.

* * *

"How you doing?" she asks when you get out there.

"Alright, been better. It's been a hectic couple of weeks"

She smiles, "Well there's an understatement. Hey, I'm sorry about Tamara. Nobody deserves to get cheated on"

You smile, glad you and Emma have managed to find a semi-civil ground, "Thanks, it's nice to have a sister willing to kick the ass out of former fiancés though"

She laughs, "Yeah"

Your conversation is interrupted by the sound of pretty heated yelling.

"I THOUGHT YOU'D BE HAPPY THAT I DEFENDED THE CHILD YOU ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT!"

"Regina calm down"

"NO! DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! ARE YOU EVEN SORRY?!" you can tell she's angry and that this stuff has clearly been festering for a while. You hear her voice break a little at the 'sorry' part and know she's thinking about her early days with magic, she's thinking about her Daddy.

"Regina" you hear Rumpel begin.

"NO! I don't want to hear it. You don't care about me. You just used me. You always use me! I hate you!" is what you hear right before she runs past you and Emma. You are too shocked to realise exactly what happened but Emma isn't. She runs after Regina leaving you to face your father.

* * *

You think over Regina's words. You realise why she thinks that he doesn't care about her and only cares about you. After all he created a curse to transcend realms to get to you and stopped at nothing to have it enacted. Even with all the crap you know he must care about you. Her, on the other hand he manipulated and pushed into killing the man she called daddy, her even in this realm he manipulated for his own ends. You wonder if he's sorry. You hope for her sake that he is. You know that she is sorry for Belle and has apologised, you know her and her mother have had several long talks wherein Cora repeatedly apologised for every misdeed against her daughter. She and Rumpel haven't had that. He hasn't apologised. You realise all the time they've spent together since the revelation has been with you. You think that you need to get them to spend time together without you and you need to get your father to apologise.

You walk into the office to see him leaning on a desk clearly deep in thought.

"Hey" you say snapping him out of the reverie.

"Bae" he says,

"Neal" you correct, after all these years you don't really think of 'Bae' as your name anymore. You prefer the one you chose all those years ago back in Neverland.

"Sorry son" he says, "I'm guessing you heard what she said"

"Yep"

"Does she really hate me?"

That you don't know, that is a question for her, you don't think she does but even so this is a conversation for him and her. "I don't think so, I think she's confused. I think she's angry because of all the things you've done to her." You look at him, "Have you really even thought about that? How she must feel knowing how hard you worked to find me, but you just used her Dad, I think you need to let her be angry at you"

"I am sorry for hurting her, you know. Had I known back then that she was mine, I wouldn't have done what I did" you see that he does at least look guilty.

"Have you told her that?"

He looks at you before admitting "No. She hasn't exactly been speaking to me very much as of late"

You suppress a bitter laugh. He's expecting her to make the first move. All these years and he still expects others to come to him first. You realise Regina is pretty much as stubborn. "Have you considered that since you're her father that maybe you should make the first step here? Besides didn't she already apologise to you?"

You wait as your father processes that information. He gasps before looking ashamed, "I sent a wraith after my own daughter" he whispers quietly.

You are not quite so quiet. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

"It was when the curse first broke and I found out what happened to Belle. I marked her with the medallion and sent it after her. Oh god, no wonder she hates me"

You're still stunned that he would do that to anyone, let alone your sister. Even after all these years you still struggle to reconcile the image of your father with that of the dark one. You decide to leave him to digest the weight of what he's done. Maybe it will get him one step closer apologising.

"See you later Dad"

"What? You're going?" he looks confused.

"Yeah. You need to think about what you did to her and I'm going to go find my sister"

* * *

Turns out you don't have to look too far. As your father skulks out behind you and down the street to his shop you spot Regina and Emma sitting on the hood of the bug. You notice that Emma has her arm around Regina as she cries. You walk over to them.

"Hi guys"

"Hi" says Emma.

"Hello" comes in a shaky half sob, half attempt at controlled speech.

You sit down on her other side. "You okay?" she shakes her head. "Want to talk?" she shakes her head again. Emma moves to get up and Regina grabs her hand. You notice Emma give it a slight squeeze before she says "I'll leave you guys to it. Regina, I'll drop Henry off later, kay?" She nods, "I will see you then Emma" Emma waves before saying "Don't sit on my bug for too long" you watch as Regina gives a small smile before replying "Like it would harm this thing? It's probably doing us more damage sitting on it" Emma scoffs at her and smiles before walking back inside. You watch this interaction stunned, your presence really didn't seem to matter to that conversation. It's nice, you think, that she has someone else to talk to, someone to reassure her and yet joke around with as well. You wrap an arm around her shoulders and realise just how cold she is, you see she isn't actually wearing a coat, in Maine, in the spring.

"Are you trying to freeze to death?" you ask.

She stares at you, "What?"

"Regina. It's March. In Maine. You really should be wearing a coat"

"I don't need one" she pouts.

"Then we're at least going inside"

She actually starts laughing. "What?" you ask.

She hops off the bug, "Nothing, just look at you being all big brotherly" she smiles.

You slide off the beat up car. You're honestly surprised that Emma still has it. "Will you at least take my coat while we're outside?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"Don't need it"

"Regina you do"

"Don't"

You smile as the pair of you act like petty children. It's a nice relief after the seriousness between you and your father. You know you should talk to Regina about what she said back at the station but for the moment you'd rather enjoy this bizarre moment of childishness. You realise that she is a bit further ahead of you now and an idea comes to mind. You shrug off your coat before running up the street , throwing it on her and yelling "Do!"

"Neal!" she shrieks in surprise. She play hits him before saying "Don't do that!" she hasn't moved to take the coat off her though.

You smirk before wrapping an arm around her shoulders as you walk to her house. "Don't do what?" you ask mock innocently.

You catch the mock death glare eye roll she gives you and laugh.


	4. Confrontations and Conversations Part 2

_AN: This chapter is a bit shorter but it felt like a good place to end this chapter to me. One guest reviewer complained about the characters being too OOC, if you feel that way I'm sorry, but this is just how I imagine they react so it might not always gel with the show. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reads and reviews this. If anyone has any other ideas for one-shots to put in this fic let me know. Hope you like this chapter :)_

You shut the door to the mansion as she walks through to the kitchen. "Coffee?" she asks.

"Sure" coffee will definitely be needed for this conversation. She seems to be comfortable enough talking to you but the woman is one for putting her walls up. You're hoping that you'll be able to get her to actually talk to you; she's not the easiest person to get information from after all.

She hands you a coffee mug before sitting across from you. She doesn't say anything, just stares absentmindedly into her drink. You snap her out of her thoughts. "Regina, we need to talk about what happened"

She sighs, "I'd rather not"

"Tough, we're going to" she glares at you but says nothing.

"Do you really hate him?" you need to know the answer to this but she doesn't reply.

"Regina"

"I think I'll make spaghetti for dinner. Henry likes spaghetti" wow, as evasions go that one pretty much sucked.

"Yeah, sounds good, not what I asked"

She gives you an infuriating shrug "I said I didn't want to talk about it"

"Well, you don't always get what you want"

"Like I need you to tell me that" she mumbles but you catch it anyway. You know she's baiting you but that doesn't stop you from being annoyed by her attitude.

"You're not the only one who's had it rough you know? You can go on and on about what Rumpel did to you compared to what he did for one but at least you had a father who raised you and loved you. You have a mother who loves you and is trying for you. My mother ran off with Hook and was murdered by our father, who chose magic over me so you can sit around complaining all you want but you are not the only person that he's wronged." You pause for breath.

"I said I didn't want to talk about this" she says in a dismissive tone.

"And I said tough. You don't always get to decide. You've got problems with him. Yeah I know. I have problems with him too but they aren't going to get dealt with by you acting like a spoilt child and refusing to talk to anyone"

She looks at you as if stunned that you would say something like that to her. You imagine that not many people actually do call her on her shit. The wall goes back up. "Are you quite finished?"

You sigh. It's been a long day and you've really had enough of stubborn family members for one day. "No, I just want you to realise that I need support too, you are not the only one with a lot to deal with right now Regina. You need to grow up and talk to someone for once"

She stares at you. You see her chew her lip in thought. "I'm sorry. How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Spend time with him and talk to him without being angry?"

"You think I'm not angry with him? I am angry as hell at him Regina but I'm trying to move forward. And yeah it's tough but a lot of the things worth doing are tough. You have to work on them Regina, you can't just expect everyone else to sort that stuff out for you"

She sighs. She doesn't say anything for a while moving instead to clean up the coffee mugs. She turns her back on you and you guess this conversation is over. You're halfway out of the kitchen door when you just catch her say "You're right"

You smile, at least something you said got through to her. "See you later Regina"

"Do you want to stay? You could see Henry, I'm sure he'd love to see you"

You know that this is her way of reaching out. Plus it would be good to see the kid again. You and Henry are still in that awkward 'getting to know each other' sort of phase, you realise the same is true of you and Regina. "Sure" you nod, "need any help?"

"Do you know how to make sauce?"

"I know how to open jars of sauce" she looks at you with disgust at the mere thought of ready-made food. "What? I pretty much live off pizza and take-out"

"Glad to see you and Emma share the same interest in healthy cuisine. Hopefully you don't pass the same habits onto Henry"

"I think the kid already knows junk food Regina"

* * *

After an incident where you nearly chopped your finger off trying to cut up a tomato, which in all fairness you've never done before, dinner preparation pretty much involves you watching while she smacks your hand away from the food and explains to you what she's doing. She's about halfway through stirring the pot of sauce when in a voice so quiet you almost miss it, she says "I don't hate him. Well I don't want to"

That is the last she says on the subject but at least it's something you think. You don't get a chance to get more out of her because the doorbell goes and Henry runs in followed by Emma.

"Hey, I swear _I _did not give him any sugar"

You watch Regina quirk a brow at the emphasised _I_. "So who did?"

"My mother may have used candy as an incentive to do homework"

"Wonderful parenting from the idiots" she scoffs.

"Mom" Henry warns.

"Sorry honey," she turns to Emma, "Will you be joining us?"

"No, I have been summoned to dinner with my parents. I'll see ya later kid"

"Bye Emma"

She leaves as Henry finally notices his mother's face. "What did you do?" he asks accusingly. You frown at his tone and step in. "Your mom was defending me against Tamara kid"

He doesn't look like he believes you but he looks at his mom hopefully, "Really?"

She nods. "You always said not to react violently mom"

"I know Henry and I'm sorry. I just lost my temper."

"Did you use magic?"

"No"

He considers this. "Good but you shouldn't hit people mom"

She smiles, "I know, sorry"

* * *

Dinner goes fairly smoothly; luckily it seems Henry is a master at dissolving tension and creating conversation where there is none. This proves to be an excellent quality of his since you and Regina seem to be equally as awkward at conversation starting.

You look at the clock and realise you really should leave. "Thanks for dinner, think about what we talked about Regina"

She nods as Henry asks what you mean.

"Don't worry about it kid, it's between me and your mom okay?"

"Fine" he clearly doesn't like being left out of stuff, "Bye"

Wow, his icy clipped tone is so Regina that it's uncanny. She gives you a small smile clearly used to this tone from Henry, "Goodbye Neal, I will take what you said under consideration"

Well that's better than nothing, you think as you walk out of the door.


	5. Superman or Batman?

_AN: This chapter got very nerdy very fast. For those of you following Operation Hide and Seek my aim is to update it tomorrow. Hope you enjoy this chapter:)_

It's Thursday so you've gone to get Henry from school. You wait outside the gates and wonder if Regina and Rumpel have actually spoken to each other yet. You've spoken to both of them since that day at the Sheriff's station but they both managed to completely avoid the subject of each other.

"Hey Dad" you hear and see Henry next to you.

"Hey kid" you say pulling him into a quick hug, "How was school?"

He shrugs, "It was okay" you smile at his response, the kid is way more into academics then you ever were. That he certainly did not get from you, or Emma. Snow and David may moan about her a lot but it's amazing how much the kid has got from Regina.

"How have you been?" there are times when you're not 100% certain what to say to Henry.

"Alright, Mom came over yesterday. Ma invited her over for dinner."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they invite each other over a lot, I think it's because they're friends now. It's better than when they were fighting all the time."

"Certainly is. How was your mom?"

He ponders over the question. "She was a little quiet, Ma asked her about Rumpel but she said she didn't want to talk about it. She seemed kind of sad"

"Oh, maybe we should do something to cheer her up then?"

He nods before smiling excitedly, "We could have her over for dinner with us?"

You smile back at him, "Sure, how does your Mom feel about pizza?"

He frowns, "She doesn't normally have takeout. Can't you cook something?"

"I can do beans on toast" you offer, it's not much but the foster system and life as a petty criminal didn't really provide culinary skills.

He rolls his eyes. "That isn't a dinner. We could go to Granny's?"

Granny's has become almost like a second-home to you now given that you eat pretty much all your meals there. "Sure Henry, why don't you go call your mom and invite her?"

"Hi Mom" you sit on the bench whilst he calls and leave them to it. He walks over to you after a couple of minutes, "She said yes", you notice that he looks guilty.

"What's up kid?" he looks at you in confusion, "You have that look on your face that kids get when they've done something bad, so what's up?"

He looks down at his shoes before mumbling, "When Emma and Snow went through the portal, Mom kidnapped me from a town meeting but then she let me go to David. A couple of days later I called her and invited her to lunch but I stood her up because I just wanted her out of the office so I could steal her keys"

You stare at him, you know he wanted to find Snow and Emma and that things between him and Regina were bad but you hadn't realised they'd been that bad. "Well what did she say about it?"

"We've not talked about it"

"Did you apologise?"

He shakes her head. "Well maybe that's what you need to do"

"I'm still mad at her" he says.

"I know kid, but do you love her?"

He nods. "Then that's what's important here kid"

"Okay" he says. The kid looks really down now which was not what you wanted. Hell you didn't what the kid to feel worse. You wonder if you should distract him. You don't know what to do in this situation to cheer him up.

"Batman or Superman?" you ask hoping this distracts him.

* * *

Regina arrives to find the two of you in a heated debate as to who is the superior superhero. "Mom" the kid yells getting up from the bench and hugging her, "Batman or Superman?"

"Hello to you too Henry, hello Neal" you smile at her.

"So Batman or Superman" you ask. "You can be our deciding vote"

She smiles and gives it some thought, "Batman"

"Yes! Told you so!" Henry yells in victory.

"Really? Batman?" she nods. "How can you prefer Batman? He has no powers"

"He has gadgets and fighting skill"

"Superman can fly"

"Batman has the Bat, he doesn't need to fly"

"Super speed"

"Batman has better gadgets, better fighting power and skills and a better back story"

You shake your head as she says "Plus all it takes to defeat Superman is kryptonite"

This discussion goes on as you enter the diner.

"Hi Neal" Ruby says.

"Hi Ruby" you wave. She has served you a lot of meals over the past few deals.

"Regina, Henry" she says to the pair of them as the three of you slide into a booth.

"What can I get you guys? Do you want your usual Neal?" she smiles at you.

You smile back, "Yes please Ruby"

Regina asks for a chicken salad and Henry for a burger. Ruby leaves and Regina raises her brow at you. "What?" you ask.

"Nothing" she says giving you a knowing look. You frown confused as to what she means but luckily Henry starts a conversation about Star Wars leading to the ultimate question: what Star Wars character you would rather be.

Henry laughs when both you and Regina say "Darth Vader"

"Really guys"

"Well who would you be Henry?"

"Chewbacca"

Ruby comes over and adds, "You're too small to be Chewbacca, you'd be an Ewok Henry" she smiles at you again as places down your food, "Plus Neal, no offense but Regina here would be a way better Darth Vader"

Regina grins victoriously as she and Henry start a lightsaber battle using fries. "Told you I'd be Vader" she smirks.

* * *

You and she drop Henry off at Emma's and you walk her home figuring that the walk will be a good opportunity to bring up the Rumpel debacle.

"Thank you for inviting me tonight Neal"

"No problem, it's nice to spend some time with you and the kid"

She laughs, "Both you and Emma call him "Kid" you do know he has a name?"

You smile, "We know but "kid" is just a nickname I guess. Can I talk to you about something?" you say your tone becoming more serious.

"About what?"

"You and Rumpel. You talk to him yet?" you look at, she's gone impossibly quiet and won't look at you.

"Regina?" Nothing.

"Hey, don't freeze me out her Regina, did you talk to him?"

She shakes her head. "Why not?"

She doesn't say anything for a while and you walk along in silence before she says "I'm not ready to yet"

"Ready?" you're confused.

"After what you said, I went back to Dr Hopper and I just, I'm not ready to talk to Rumpel just yet. Besides he hasn't talked to me yet either"

"He hasn't?" she shakes her head and looks thoroughly miserable. You had hoped that your talk with your Dad would have had some small impact but clearly not.

"I'm sure he will soon" you attempt to reassure.

"I doubt it" she scoffs mirthlessly. You put an arm around her, "Sorry I brought it up, I didn't want to upset you"

"You didn't. I'm fine"

"Yeah, clearly, you know you can talk to me if you want?"

She nods, "I know, just can we not tonight?"

You nod, "Okay, so you ever play Pokémon?"

"Of course Neal. 11 year old son remember?"

You smile, "So what's your choice for starting Pokémon?"

She pauses before saying "Charmander"

"Seriously?"

She nods.

"Squirtle kicks ass"

You continue this as the pair of you walk to her mansion.

_AN 2: I love Batman, would totally be Darth Vader plus in mind were there to be a OUAT Star Wars I can only picture Henry as an Ewok. Also Squirtle does totally kick ass :)_


	6. The Mediator

_AN: Okay this chapter is a bit short but I plan to make the next one continue straight on from this so it had to end where it did. Thank you for all the reviews, they really encourage to keep writing the madness. My hip is actually killing me today so if there are mistakes we shall blame it on pain! Hope you enjoy :)_

_To the guest who asked about Neal being protective over Regina's date that is going to come up soon._

_Queen Nan - definite hints of SQ is what I was going for :) I don't know if it's called Red Thief but I couldn't think of anyone else to pair Neal up with who wasn't Emma_

_Korderoo - awkwardness regarding SQ will also be coming up in one of the upcoming chapters_

_princesspay10 - thank you, if I can think of more debates than there will probably be some more. If anyone has any "debate" ideas let me know._

You walk into the diner before you head to your true destination of the morning. Ruby notices you and smiles, "Hi Neal"

"Hey Ruby"

"What can I get you this morning?"

"A very large cup of coffee please" for the conversation you're planning on attempting later coffee is a must.

"Fun day ahead?" She jokes passing you the take-out cup.

You smile, "Oh yeah it's going to be tons of fun"

"Who are you facing today, the dark one or the evil queen?" she smiles teasingly so you know she's joking but still it reminds you of the pasts of your family.

"Ruby" you say "Can we not call them that? Can't we just say my father or my sister?"

She pauses noticing that you are in fact being serious, she nods, "Okay Neal, so who is it today?" she is aware of your attempts to get Regina and Rumpel in the same room. "My father today, see ya later Ruby"

"Bye"

You wander out the door before sighing and setting off down the street.

* * *

You take a deep breath before entering the pawn shop. "Hello" you call out noticing that he isn't behind the counter.

"Bae" he says stepping out from the back room.

You grit your teeth, "Neal" you correct.

"Sorry, can't get used to the name change, to me you'll always be my boy Bae"

You smile a little at the sentiment, "Right but for me it hasn't been my name for a long time so could you at least try to call me Neal from now on?"

He sighs, "Alright, for you I can try. What can I do for you today?"

You take a sip of your coffee, "Regina" you begin.

He rolls his eyes, "Do we really need to have this conversation again?"

You sigh, "Yes" he moves to speak but you put your hand up to stop him, "Dad, could you just listen to me?"

He nods and gestures for you to continue, "Right, I spoke to Regina yesterday, she told me that she's started seeing Dr Hopper again"

"Well that's good for her, why does this concern me?"

"How about because she's your daughter? Why haven't you spoken to her yet?"

He sighs, "I have my reasons"

Wow, crappy answer, "Such as?"

"History. You can come in here and swoop as the gallant big brother all you like Neal but there is a lot of history between me and Regina. It's not exactly something that one conversation is going to magically fix"

You stare at him thinking over his answer for a few moments. "It would certainly be a start though"

He just looks at you in confusion.

"You said one conversation won't fix the past between you and Regina but ignoring her doesn't fix anything either"

"Ignoring her? You think I'm just pretending that the problem doesn't exist?"

"Yes I do. You can go on and on about history while you sit in here surrounded by all this crap from the past" you say gesturing to several items on display, "but how about instead you try and move forward? She apologised to you over Belle and I know one talk won't fix everything but you need to be the one to make the first move here"

"And why should I do that?"

"Because you hurt her and manipulated her. You told me before that you felt badly about what you did to her but admitting that to me doesn't help anything. You need to admit that to Regina. It's time to make an effort here Dad"

"And if she won't listen?"

"How do you know she won't listen if you don't try?"

He frowns before picking up his phone "Alright" he conceded, "I'll try"

You offer him a smile, "Good call her"

He sighs before dialling, "Hello Regina, are you busy?" "Fine dearie, I would like to see you later today if that's possible" not the best way of asking, you think, but it will do. "Okay, good I will see you soon then"

"She agreed to come and talk to me"

"Good, I'll leave you to it"

"What? Really?"

"Yes Dad, this is a conversation the two of you need to have alone"

He nods, "Well then, goodbye Neal"

"Bye" you say and turn to leave the store.

* * *

You walk out the door and collide straight into another person. "Sorry" you say before looking to see who it is. "Oh hi Regina"

She smiles at you, "Hello Neal, I guess I just found the reason why Rumpel just called me"

"Guilty" you see no need to lie. She sighs clearly having hoped that the call had been all his idea. You reach out and place a hand on her shoulder, "He wanted to talk to you anyway Regina, he just needed a little push"

"If you say so"

"He does want to talk to you Regina, just hear him out okay?"

She sighs, "I will"

"I'll let you go then, have a good talk Regina"

She nods "Have a good day Neal" you turn to walk away before she says "Wait" and walks over to you. "Thank you" she says with a small smile.

"For what?"

"For doing all of this, working so hard to get him to talk to me. People don't tend to do things for me very often Neal so thank you for being the minority"

You smile sadly at her "It's really no trouble Regina, it's what big brothers are for okay?"

She smiles and steps forward pausing for a moment before giving you a very brief and hesitant hug and mumbling "Thank you". You hug back and say "Anytime Regina, now go talk to him" she withdraws from the hug and nods before walking inside.

You smile as she does, today went a lot better than you thought it would. Now you just hope that their talk goes reasonably well and doesn't end in another argument like at the station.

* * *

You walk towards the docks, after a quick lunch at the diner, hoping to just forget all the drama for a while and just watch the waves. It would seem that you're not going to get that lucky today. When you arrive you see Emma sitting on a bench with her arms around someone. You can tell that the other person is crying. Great more drama you think. You walk closer and see that it's Regina. You're guessing that her talk with your father went well.


	7. Awkward

AN: Okay I had to switch POV for the first part but hopefully you'll see that I kind of needed to for it to make sense. I apologise for any mistakes. Thank you to the people who are reading and reviewing this. Hope you like this chapter :)

_You sit on the bench by the docks and think about what just happened. You would never admit it to him but you were a little disappointed that he wouldn't call you at his own initiative but then again you guess he always did need someone else to do the dirty work. You sigh bitterly at that thought. He did seem genuinely apologetic when you and he talked but that doesn't stop the resentment bubbling up inside of you. You remember what Neal said to you about giving him a chance and remember the deep breathing that Archie suggested, the bug might be a tad annoying at times but he is helpful. _

_A figure drops down next to you. Very ungraceful entrance but what else can you expect. "Hello Emma"_

"_Hey, how'd it go?"_

"_Neal made him call" you smile, still disappointed but at the same time a little happy that he is actually trying to help you. It's nice, it's a little uncomfortable at times because you're not good at letting people help you but you're trying. You realise Emma asked you something. "Sorry, what?"_

_She smiles, "I asked if he wanted to call you"_

"_He did."_

"_Then it doesn't matter if Neal is the one who made him do it, how did the actual talking part go?"_

_You sigh. "It was" you struggle for a word to sum up the awkward, stilted yet strangely cathartic conversation you had with your father, "okay" _

"_Just okay?"_

_You nod. Okay is as good as you hope for. You told Neal you'd try but it's hard because in the talk you just had with Rumpel, much like the ones you've had with your mother, you're mostly being forced to relive all of the bad parts of your past. Emma leans over and brushes away a tear you hadn't realised had started to fall. _

"_What's up?" _

_You laugh at her casual manner of showing concern but it's a small one and just makes more tears come out. "It's just" you pause running your tongue along your teeth "it's so hard Emma, Neal wants me to talk to Rumpel and we did but it's just like with my mother, they just keep saying sorry for my life and all the stuff they did, which is nice to hear but I don't want to have to keep reliving it. It's just all so awkward, it's just too much, you know?" _

_She reaches round and wraps her arms around you, "I know" and you realise that she does, you wonder if this is how Henry feels about you, you wonder if this is how Neal feels when he talks to Rumpel, you're brought out of these thoughts by how nice it feels to have her arms around you. You pull back slightly and she wipes away the remaining tears and smiles at you, you don't know what makes you do it but you kiss her, it's soft and gentle and full of promise. "Wow" Emma says._

"_I'm sorry" you blurt out. _

_She looks at you confusedly, "Why?" _

"_I don't know why I did that" _

"_Do you regret it?" _

_You shake your head and start crying again, you hate looking this weak but it's all very overwhelming. She pulls you back in for another hug and holds you while you cry; when you finally stop she releases you and draws you in for another kiss. You smile before you hear a splash and a shocked "What the hell is going on here?!" _

_You and Emma turn as one and see your brother standing there staring at you both stunned. Well this makes it all a lot less awkward._

* * *

You walk nearer to the bench after seeing that Emma is trying to comfort your sister. Then you see something that shocks the life out of you, Emma leans over and kisses her. You drop your coffee and end up yelling "What the hell is going on here?!"

She and Emma look at you looking very much like deer in headlights. Emma is looking between you and Regina, looking utterly panicked. Regina is just staring down trying to compose herself. Neither answers you.

You don't know what to say either. Are they a couple? You've seen how they interact lately but it's your ex-girlfriend, who had your baby, and your little sister. The whole thing makes your head hurt. It's weird. You have no idea what to think about it. You're still waiting for either one of them to say something.

"Well? What's going on? Are you two a couple?"

They share a look. "I don't know" Regina sighs.

"I'd like us to be" Emma says.

You see her smile. You sit down on the bench next to them still a little stunned. You're trying to wrap your head around this but your mind is just a complete maze right now.

"Neal?" Regina asks.

You don't answer, it's all so much, you're trying to piece together the bits of your family, you're trying to deal with forgiving your father, you're trying to figure out what part you play in Henry's life and now this? It's all way too much right now. You think that you need to think this out, preferably with a bottle of alcohol or several. You look over at them and they both look worried. You don't know what to say to them. You need time to think. You suddenly get up.

"You know what? I can't deal with this right now, I've got to go"

"Wait Neal" Regina gets up as if to follow you.

You stop her with your hand, "Just give me a little time here Regina. I'll call you later." You don't know if you will. All you know is you need a drink.

* * *

You walk into the diner and slump onto a bar stool. You look down at your phone and see several frantic messages from both Emma and Regina as well as a few missed calls. The thought briefly crosses your mind that you didn't actually ask how her talk with your dad went, you kind of forgot after the latest revelation. You wonder if the surprises are ever going to stop coming.

"You look like you could do with a drink" Ruby says approaching you.

You smile and run your hands over your face, "Yeah, preferably a large one please"

"What would you like?"

"I'll just have a beer thanks"

"Rough day?" she asks.

"Just another surprise" you reply bitterly.

"Wow, what was this one?"

"I just saw my sister and Emma kissing"

"Awkward but about time"

"About time?" you're confused.

"Yeah, you weren't around but since Emma first came to town, those two have been up in each other's faces, I was wondering when they'd finally get together"

"Really? Even though she's the Evil Queen? You're rooting for them?"

"Well you told me not to call her the Evil Queen anymore, besides it's quite poetic surely, the former villain and the Saviour?"

"I guess, do I have the right to feel awkward about this?"

"What do you mean?" she asks pouring you another beer.

You take a sip, "It's just that Emma used to be my girlfriend and Regina's my sister, it's just weird right?"

She laughs, "I guess yeah a little but it's not like either one of them can help how they feel right?"

You nod. They can't help it but you still don't exactly what to think or what you're supposed to do. "So I'm not a total douche for freaking out and ignoring their calls right now?"

"Well what did you say to them when you saw them?"

"Panicked and came here to drink"

"Good reaction"

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do"

"Well she's your sister, so support her, voice your concerns but for now, you should really just go home and sleep"

She's right. It's going to be fun facing Regina and Emma tomorrow but for now you'll take Ruby's advice and sleep.


	8. Apologies and Acceptance

_AN: Whoo! Longest chapter yet :) Sorry it took a while for me to get this up but I had to go into work. Some Regina POV in here because I wanted to put her convo with Rumpel in and I didn't think it would make sense from Neal's POV. TW for reference to abuse, it's small but figured I should mention it. Apologies in advance for any grammatical errors, I'm running very low on sleep. Hope you like this chapter :)_

Neal didn't return any of your calls. He didn't return Emma's either, she called to check in on you and you asked. He said he'd call you but he hasn't and you feel oddly worried. Normally your concern is limited to Henry but you find that with recent events it seems to be spreading, before you would have thought this was a bad thing, love is weakness she said, but now you don't think it is. You find that you want to be concerned. He hasn't called; you pick up the phone and wonder if you should call Rumpel to see if he's heard from Neal, the conversation from yesterday running through your mind.

_Neal leaves and you stand in the doorway preparing yourself to go in. You've been in this shop before, granted it was normally to gloat or to challenge him but this time it's different. This is a whole new territory and you honestly have no idea what he wants to talk to you about. You haven't really spoken since the station. You take a deep breath, steady your hands and walk in. You move to flip the sign from open to closed but stop unsure if you should._

"_Flip it over to 'closed' Regina. Something tells me this is a conversation to be had in private"_

_You nod in agreement and flip the sign before walking over and leaning on the counter careful to keep a barrier between the pair of you._

"_Hello Rumpel, you said you wanted to talk?" you realise how impatient you sound and chastise yourself._

"_Very direct" he says, "Well then, how are things with your mother?"_

_You're momentarily stunned; you weren't expecting him to bring her up at all. You don't know how to respond, things with your mother are awkward, strange, upsetting, overwhelming and really you don't know where you stand with her, she wants to make amends but it's difficult. You sigh, unsure of how much of this to reveal. "They're interesting" you sum up._

_He nods, sensing that it's not something you really wish to discuss further. "And Bae?"_

"_Neal" you automatically correct, you don't know him as Bae, to you he is Neal, "Things are going well on that front" you smile. _

"_And Henry?" _

_You wonder briefly if he's going to go through everyone you know individually as an attempt to stall what he really want to talk about. "Things with Henry are improving. Now I'm guessing you didn't invite me over here for small talk. What did you want to talk about?"_

_He sighs, placing a hand on the glass before looking back up at you. "You, well you and I"_

_You gulp a little "Oh?"_

"_Yes, well we have a lot to talk about regarding recent revelations"_

"_Yes I suppose we do" before he can start you end up asking, "Would you do it again?"_

_He looks at you confused. "I don't understand what you mean"_

"_If you had known back then that you were my father, would you still have done everything you did?"_

_He pauses, clearly uncertain, "I can't say I regret it you know because those actions led to me finding Bae, I mean Neal, and you getting Henry, all I can say is that I would find another way to get to this land"_

"_You wouldn't have made me cast the curse?"_

"_No and I wouldn't have made you kill Henry. I wouldn't have taught you magic. I wouldn't have plotted with Frankenstein and the hatter to trick you. I wouldn't have set a wraith after you."_

_You let this information run through, it doesn't help, he wouldn't have done it had he known but he still did, he doesn't regret. You have one more question because you need to know this one, "Could you have saved me from her?" there's a big part of you that still fears your mother, fears her temper and her disapproval, even now, even with her heart, you're still a little girl frightened that if she drops a plate or forgets her manners then she'll be punished._

_He sighs, "Yes" he says and looks at you once more, you find that he actually looks like he might cry, "I'm sorry Regina that I didn't get you out of there, I'm sorry that I didn't stop her"_

_You feel tears gather in the corner of your eyes, he apologised for something, the thing you wanted to know but oddly you feel no vindication, no victory because it still hurts. The apology helps a little though, it's a step forward and if he can make one you can. "Thank you" you say. You don't really know what else to say. You need to think. "Goodbye Rumpel"_

"_Do you not want to stay for tea or something?" he smiles hopefully._

_You wish you could but just not today. "I'm sorry" you say, "Maybe some other time?"_

"_I'd like that"_

_You nod and leave._

Thinking that conversation over makes your decision and for the first time since the curse broke you call your father.

* * *

Your head hurts like hell. You drank way too much. You hear a phone ringing. You hope to hell it isn't yours but alas it is.

"'Lo" Your voice is groggy.

"Neal?" oh good your father, you sit up and clear your throat. "Yeah Dad, it's me, what's up?"

"Call your sister"

"What?"

"Regina called me asking if I'd heard from you, she's worried about you. Is everything alright son?" you smile; she was worried that you didn't call then you realise that you still need to talk to her about all the Emma drama. Today will be fun.

"Neal? Are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here, don't worry okay I'm fine, I'll call Regina later"

"Okay, thank you"

"No problem, bye"

"Goodbye"

You throw the phone down and stare at your slightly hung-over state in the mirror; yeah you should probably shower and hunt down some ibuprofen before you go face your sister.

* * *

You walk into the diner in search of coffee; Regina is meeting you here in a few minutes. Ruby spots you and mercifully places a large cup of coffee in front of you as you plop onto a stool. "Thank you Ruby"

"I thought you might need one of these after the amount of beer you put away last night"

"I do. Plus I'm meeting with Regina in a couple of minutes"

"You know what you gonna say to her?"

"I do. Would it be totally evil of me to screw with her?"

"In what way?"

"If I tricked her into believing I was some massive jerk and not okay with it?"

"I think that might be a little evil"

"Even if I did it in a funny overdramatic way?"

She laughs and flicks a towel at you, "Evil!" she grins, "So I take it this means you're okay with it?"

"Well I had a lot of time and alcohol to think about it last night and I decided you were right, if they're happy, why should I stand in their way?"

She smiles at you, "You're a good brother Neal"

"Thanks Ruby"

You hear the bell and see Regina walk in. There are a few glares thrown her way and some not so quietly muttered comments, some people are still wary of her and see her as simply the evil queen who cursed them.

"Hey Regina" Ruby calls waving her over to your booth.

"Ruby" she greets.

"So what can I get you and I hear you finally made out with Emma" wow, Ruby it appears is not one for subtlety. Regina stares shocked at her for a few moments before turning and giving you a glare that you swear could melt the South Pole.

"I'll just have my usual please Ruby" she sits and cocks a brow at you.

"It just slipped out" you shrug.

"Who else did you tell?" she sounds a little worried.

"Just Ruby"

"And I didn't tell anyone Regina, but seriously though good for you guys" Ruby places her coffee in front of her and smiles.

"Thank you Ruby, do you mind keeping it to yourself? Just for now?" she asks.

Ruby sighs, "Sure thing, but you're making me hold out on some killer gossip here"

You smile surprised that Ruby dares to be that way around Regina. Very few people do. "So" you say. "Rumpel called and said you were worried"

"Well you didn't call me back"

"You were worried about me, you're going soft sis"

She quirks a brow, "Sis?"

"I figured I should give you a nickname, would you prefer "makes out with my ex-girlfriend?" okay so you might have decided to screw with her a little before talking seriously. The furiously red blush that spreads across her face is totally worth it though.

"Okay I probably deserved that"

"I wonder how Snow White and Prince Charming will react" you continue.

"You wouldn't" she gasps. Part of you wish that you had a camera.

"Well someone should probably spread the news about the saviour and the queen. Who better than a traumatised eye-witness?" at that one she realises you're messing with her. "NEAL!" she yells before realising that she has drawn everyone's attention to their beetroot red mayor panicking. She looks furious as you start to laugh. "That was not funny" she mumbles.

"It kind of was" you smirk at her.

"That was just mean"

"Oh come on, prime meat like my sister and my former girlfriend and you expect me not to tease?"

"Well I hoped we could talk about this seriously" she huffs.

"You should have seen your face" you laugh.

She glares again. "If you're just going to laugh at me then I'm going back to my office"

You put up a hand in mock surrender, "Fine, fine, come on cool your jets g-bear and let's talk seriously."

She gives you a funny look "G-bear?"

"I figured G like Gina and bear because when you're angry you kind of look like a really pissed off koala bear"

"Not funny and no on that nickname" she scoffs and rolls her eyes, "Now are going to talk like grown-ups"

You pout, "If we must"

She gives a tiny smile, "We must"

"Then fine, seriously, at first I was somewhat freaked out"

"Somewhat? You completely freaked out, it was like Level 100 panic in here" Ruby chooses that moment to refill your drinks.

"Thank you Ruby for that" you say.

"Yes, thank you Ruby, so total freak out?"

"Well it was a bit of a shock in all fairness Regina but honestly I've had some time to think and I am okay with it. I might need time to get used to it so you know be subtle"

"Well we haven't actually gone out yet so subtlety should be easy" she admits.

"Oh okay, is she taking you out?"

"Yes, thank you for being okay with this. I know it's probably weird for you"

"I'll get over that, if she makes you happy and you make her happy then I'm not going be an asshat and stand in the way of that"

She beams at you. "Thank you" she pauses, "Not to add to the awkwardness but can you watch Henry on Wednesday?"

"Date night?" you mock.

She nods.

An idea springs to mind. "Okay but only if I get to perform my older brother duties and threaten your date"

She looks at you both amused and horrified. You wonder what she would do if you tried to take a photo of her at this moment.


	9. Babysitting

_AN: I wasn't going to update this until the weekend but it's been bugging me so for the sake of my essays I give you an update. Hope you like :)_

It turns out an attempt to take a picture resulted in the near drowning of your phone in a cup of coffee. Luckily after a rescue mission and the aid of a tea-towel your phone was saved which is good since it keeps going off like crazy from texts from Regina who seems to be in a pre-date panic. You knock on her door. She answers looking as if she's just been caught in some sort of wind storm. "Neal, thank god you're here, please help me! I have nothing to wear. This was a bad idea wasn't it? You're not really going to threaten her are you? What do I do?" she gets this out all in one breath and it takes you a moment to process all of that.

"First of all calm down, I'm sure you own clothes, can't say I'll be much help on that front" you gesture to your own casual clothes and roll your eyes at her smirk, "It's not a bad idea Reggie, I'm not going to tell you what to do because I don't know what you're doing and yes, I am going to threaten her"

"No on Reggie"

"You can't veto every nickname"

"I can and I will, do you have to threaten Emma?" she pleads throwing you what you imagine must be her own version of the puppy eyes.

You laugh "I must, it's part of my responsibility as a brother to do so"

She sighs, "Don't go overboard. Also, I've told Henry that the pair of you may order pizza for dinner, his bedtime is 9, he'll try to get you to let him stay up later but the latest I let him go to bed is half past because he has school tomorrow."

"Okay, any kind of pizza or does he have any weird allergies?"

"He doesn't have any allergies but he'll probably pick pepperoni"

You notice that she's starting to fidget, you walk over and steer her in the direction of the stairs, "Right, I'm sure I can figure out how to look after the kid Ginny, now go and get ready"

She's halfway up the stairs when she suddenly glares at you, "It's a hell no on Ginny"

* * *

Henry and you are playing Mario Kart while you wait; you wonder how he feels about all of this. "So kid, how do you feel about your mom and your ma?"

He pauses clicking on a power up, sending you into last place, before replying "As long as she doesn't hurt ma"

"You think your mom will hurt Emma?"

"Well she's the evil queen and ma is the saviour" he trails off.

You sigh, "We've been over this before Henry, your mom isn't really evil anymore and she won't hurt Emma"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, and once I warn your ma, she won't hurt your mom either"

"Good, well she wouldn't hurt Mom anyway because she's good" you sigh, the kid still has his views on black and white and you don't really want to shatter that.

"Good people can still hurt people Henry" you say.

He shrugs, "I guess but they feel badly about it"

"You don't think your mom feels bad about hurting people?"

"Does she?"

"She does kid" he grins at that and zooms over the finish line. He fist pumps the air in victory, "That's 4-0 to me now Dad, you really need to practice at this game"

You laugh, "Sure do kid, you'll have to teach me"

As you start another race, "Do you think my moms can be each other's happy ending?"

You smile at the happy ending part. "Maybe kid, maybe"

"Okay" the doorbell rings.

"I'll get that" you smirk since Regina is still upstairs.

* * *

You open the door to a very nervous looking Emma. "Hi Neal"

"Emma"

"Hey Ma," Henry says, "I'm kicking Dad's butt at Mario-Kart"

"Good for you kid, don't let your Mom overhear you saying 'butt'"

"I could have said something worse"

"Definitely don't say something worse"

"Hey Henry, why don't you go play, I need to talk to your Ma for a minute" he grins deviously at you knowing what you're about to do, "Good luck Ma" he smirks.

"Thanks Henry, Regina warned me about this" she says.

"Did she? So tell me what are your intentions with my little sister?"

She laughs, "What?"

"I'm serious, what is this?"

"I don't know, this our first date"

"You do realise if you hurt her I will have to come after you"

She laughs again, "Neal, I would kick your ass in a fight and we both know it"

"I feel like you're not taking this seriously and I wouldn't fight you, I would find other ways"

"Other ways?"

"I have ways"

She rolls her eyes, "I'm sure you do, are we done with this?" she smiles.

"Seriously Em, don't hurt her" you warn, you were joking before but this one you mean. You know she won't intentionally but you feel like you need to say this.

She gets the serious tone, "I won't Neal. She ready?"

"Yes, she is. You scrub up nicely Miss Swan" your sister comes down the stairs. "Is your threatening done now Neal?" she smiles.

"I suppose so, go enjoy your date. Have her back by midnight Emma"

"Seriously Neal? You don't need to curfew our date, we will back by midnight" Regina smiles, "Thank you for looking after Henry tonight"

"No problem, have fun Gina-bug"

"No" she says as she and Emma leave.

* * *

The doorbell rings about ten minutes after they leave, you open the door and see Ruby standing there. "Hey Ruby, what are you doing here?"

"I heard you were babysitting Henry tonight, thought you might like company?"

You smile, "Were you sent here by either of his mothers?"

She laughs, "No"

"Then come on in"

* * *

Time flies pretty quick, the three of you have a Mario-kart tournament which even with Ruby your team Henry ends up winning, you eat pizza and then send Henry off to bed, who doesn't even put up a fight.

"Night Dad, night Ruby"

"Good night Henry" you and Ruby say.

He leaves you two alone and it's not as awkward as you think it might be. "Do you want to watch a movie or something until Regina gets back?"

She shrugs, "Sure, what kind of movies does she have anyway?"

You look at the DVD rack, "Most of it seems to be old Disney movies and superhero stuff"

"Those are probably for Henry, anything else?"

"Not really, have you seen this?" you say holding up _Monsters vs. Aliens_

"No, what is it?"

You put it into the DVD player, "A group of monsters fighting an evil alien overlord who wishes to take over the world. It's pretty funny"

"It better be, if not I pick the next movie we watch"

"You planning on us having another movie night?" you joke.

She shifts awkwardly, "If you want?"

You smile, "Sure"

* * *

The movie ends and somehow during the course of the film the pair of you have ended up sitting right next to each other with your arm around her shoulder.

"Okay that was pretty funny" she says looking at you.

"Told you so" you grin.

Several tension filled moments pass as you listen to the end credits before you wind up kissing. And wow. It feels way better than it ever did with Tamara or the various flings you had in the past few years.

She pulls away with a smile, "Wow"

"So, what does this mean exactly?"

"Aren't I supposed to ask that?"

"Huh?"

"You kissed me"

"You kissed me" you reply.

She kisses you again, "That time I did, but the first time was all you"

You laugh, "I think I'll let this argument slide, so do you want to go out sometime?"

She looks around, "I'd like to, you can take me out somewhere that isn't one of your relative's places"

You laugh as you walk her to the door, "So that's a no on a date in a pawn shop?"

She laughs, "I'll see you later Neal"

You open the door to let Ruby out and see your sister on the porch waving goodbye to a yellow bug. "How'd it go?" Ruby asks startling her out of her post-date haze.

"Ruby?" she turns and gives you a knowing look.

"She came over here just to hang out"

She just rolls her eyes at you as Ruby gestures to her mouth behind her. You raise your hand up and realise there is indeed lipstick over your face.

"The date was excellent Ruby, thank you for asking, how was Henry?"

"He was fine" you answer.

"I want gossip on the date" Ruby asks, "And you Neal, better take me on one that leaves with a look on my face like that" she says pointing to the giddy happy expression on your sister's face.

"I'll try, see you later Ruby"

"Bye Neal, Regina"

"Goodbye Ruby"

She smirks at you as she comes in to the house "I knew it"

"Knew what?"

"You and Ruby"

"Okay fine you were right, happy?"

She smiles, "Yep, so where you going to take her?"

"I have no idea, where did you guys go?"

"Why? Going to steal Emma's ideas?" she smiles clearly thinking over her night.

"It might help, you know inspiration"

"We had a picnic"

"Really? You don't seem like the picnic type"

"It was at the stables, I like the stables, you should do something that you know she'll likw"

"Want to help me plan Mills?"

"Your nickname ideas are clearly running dry"

"No need to worry G, Henry and I came up with a list"

She groans and rolls her eyes, "Can I just say no to all of them now?"

"What would the fun be in that?"

"Sparing your sister annoyance?" she says.

You laugh, "I bet secretly you love them, now will you help me plan?"

"Call me tomorrow and I'll help, but I bet I won't love the nicknames you and Henry thought of"

"You will so, see you tomorrow" you say with a wave.


	10. Happy Birthday

_AN: Not gonna lie, it's been a long day so if there are mistakes in this I can only apologise. Thank for your reviews, they encouraged me to write this now instead of waiting until the essay writing/exam revising/presentation prepping hell that is my life is over. I am aiming to hopefully update this over the weekend. I promised an update for The Flu this week so I need to write that first. I still own neither Once nor Regina. This chapter is pretty much fluff. Hope you like this chapter :) _

It's your day with Henry but when you go to pick him up from school you notice that he seems to be lost in thought. Normally he greets you quite enthusiastically, today you get a grumbled "Hey Dad" and an immediate return to silence as the kid clearly thinks something over.

"Something on your mind Henry?"

He looks up at you and shrugs, "Do you think we should see my Mom today?"

The question confuses you, from what you can tell he sees Regina and Emma pretty much every day except Thursday regardless of whose day it is so you're curious as to why he would ask. You're also kind of confused by the should part.

"Should? Is today important kid?"

He frowns, "It's her birthday"

You pause and do a quick mental calendar check before realising that Henry is indeed right. Crap. With all that's been going on lately you totally forgot. "It is. Did you get her something?" he shakes his head. You frown, "Why not?" he shrugs, "I'm eleven and I kind of forgot until today" he mumbles looking down at his shoe, clearly ashamed.

"Hey buddy, don't worry about it okay, I forgot as well"

"You did?"

"Yeah"

"Did Emma get her something?"

"I don't think she remembered either"

Oh double crap. "Hold on kid, I'll text her and see if she did"

"You should ask Rumpel and Cora as well"

You nod, the kid is right, you're hoping someone remembered. You get three texts back:

**Shit. That's today?!**

_I'm afraid that I completely forgot as well._

Are you sure? 

"They didn't remember either kid"

He frowns clearly upset, "She's gonna think no-one cares about her Dad, we have to do something!" he insists. You agree with him, you'll be damned if you let her spend her birthday alone and miserable because everyone forgot.

"You're right kid, you got a plan?"

He grins, "Yep, get everyone to meet at Gold's shop in 10 minutes"

"Who's everyone?"

"Hm" he thinks it over, "Ma, Cora, Gold, Ruby and Granny, Grandma and Grandpa, Archie and us"

"Okay sounds good" you pause, "Do your Grandma and Grandpa know about your moms?"

He pauses, "I don't think so, I think the only people who know are me, you and Ruby"

You nod, "Hey Dad, are you and Ruby together?"

You pause, you guys have only really had one date but you've hit it off pretty well. "Yeah kid, I guess so"

"That's awesome"

"So I don't have to worry whether or not my kid likes my girlfriend then?" you laugh.

"Nope"

Your phone buzzes, "Okay kid, Operation Birthday is ago"

"That's an awful codename."

"Why?"

"It's super obvious"

* * *

The ten of you are gathered in Gold's shop.

"I can't believe you all managed to forget her birthday" Granny tuts and shakes her head disapprovingly at you all.

"Did you remember?" Henry asks.

"I did indeed but she hasn't come in to the diner today so I haven't been able to do anything about it"

"Is that really an excuse?" Henry continues.

She falters a little, "I still remembered" she huffs.

"Okay guys, break it up" Emma says.

"Yes, so Ba..Neal, son, why have you called us here?" your father, of course always one to get down to business.

"Henry actually masterminded this meeting so kid you want to clue us in?"

"I should have guessed it was all Henry's idea" Emma says smirking

"Well I have the best ideas" Henry replies, admittedly a little smugly but still his plans are pretty damn good.

The plan is pretty ingenious, plus it's really simple and easy to pull off. As Henry assigned people jobs he pointed to you and said "And all you have to do is distract her and then get her over to Granny's when I say we're ready". Oh you think, is that all? You're hoping they don't take long. You nod and are sent on your merry way.

* * *

You sit at the docks with two cups of Granny's finest take-away coffee. You ended up calling Regina and inviting her out here, you figured this was probably the best place for distraction. Now you just need to think of something to talk to her about. You hear a click-clacking behind you and know she's approaching. She sits down next to you after checking the bench to make sure it is indeed clean enough.

"Hi Neal" she says quietly. She looks utterly miserable which you hate but you can't let on that you know now.

"Hi Gigi" you smirk handing her a coffee.

"Thanks" she mumbles not even reacting to the nickname.

You frown, you need to cheer her up but you're not really certain how to do that so settle for distracting conversation, "How are things with Rumpel?"

"Fine" she says before staring intently into her coffee cup.

"Okay, um how about with you mom?"

She shrugs, "Fine".

Wow, she's really sinking the conversations today. Hopefully Henry and the others won't take too long because you're not altogether certain that you'll be able to distract her for long enough otherwise. You try to think of conversational topics.

"How are things with Emma?"

She smiles a little, only a little, "They're good." Hazah. Two words this time. "How did your date with Ruby go?" she asks.

You grin thinking back to a few nights ago when in the end you took Ruby out to dinner and then ended up just doing a movie marathon, "Great, your advice rocks little sister"

She smiles briefly again. "How are things between you and Rumpel?"

"They're alright, could be better, could be worse"

She nods sipping her drink and staring at the waves before standing and leaning against the railing. You walk over and join her. "Do you what today is?" she asks turning to stare at you.

Do not give anything away, you think. You have to along with pretending you don't know. You shrug as nonchalantly as you can "April 30th" you say. You have to turn away because it actually looks like she's going to cry. Mercifully your phone goes off, **we're ready**. Oh thank god, you think. You turn and see that Regina has started to walk off already.

"Regina wait!" you call.

She keeps on walking her arms folded against her chest. "Regina!"

You run and skid in front of her. "Move" she says.

"No" you reply. She moves to step around you but you step in her way.

"Neal, can you please just move so I can go home?"

"No"

She moves to sidestep around you again but you grab her arms, "Not so fast bug"

"I am not a bug, let me go!" she commands.

"I will if you come to Granny's with me" you offer.

She struggles against you for a few moments before sighing in defeat, "Fine"

* * *

She doesn't speak to you at all the entire way there; you practically have to drag her up the pathway that leads to the door. She huffs, "Why did you want to come here anyway or is just so you can drool over your girlfriend?" her tone might be annoyed but she's teasing you so you know she can't be too mad. You roll your eyes, "You'll see"

"Are we going in then or are we just going to stay out here all day?"

"After you" you say gesturing with your arms before realising that the dramatic flourish was very Rumplestiltskiny.

She laughs at the gesture "like father like son" she smirks and walks in.

"SURPRISE!"

She actually jumps but she laughs and smiles when she sees the people and the happy birthday banner. Henry runs up to her and hugs her, "Happy Birthday Mom!"

"Thank you sweetie" she says. You can see she has tears in her eyes. She kneels down to him, "So whose idea was the party?" she whispers. He smiles, "Mine, of course". She hugs him again, "Thank you Henry, I love it"

"Good" he says pulling her towards the rest of the crowd.

You watch her go around and receive hugs of various levels, a warm though restrained one from Emma, a quick one from Ruby, a smothery one from Granny, an awkward one from her mother and a very hesitant and quick one from Rumpel. Snow and Charming, funnily enough, she chooses not to hug instead settling for a quick nod their way. Archie hugs her gently before telling her to enjoy herself, you hear her make a joke about doctor's orders and smile as you look over your admittedly very bizarre family. She makes her way over to you, play hits you on the arm and laughs as you play mock injured, she hugs you. "You're evil, you played me at the docks" she says.

You return the hug, "Well I had to, what kind of brother would I be if I spoiled the surprise?"

She smiles. "True"

The lights suddenly go dim before you hear singing start and Granny comes out bearing pancakes with candles in them. You laugh to yourself wondering if she'll mind but when you look at Regina's face she looks so unbelievably happy that you think pancakes will probably do.

"You have to make a wish" you say.

She nods, slightly dumbfounded by the moment before blowing out the candles. "What did you wish for?"  
"If I tell you it won't come true" she says.

You laugh and then realise she's serious.

The time eventually comes for presents. You all ended up going for homemade stuff since you only remembered today. It's Emma who begrudgingly admits this to her and everything else does too but Regina surprises you when she doesn't seem to care.

"You really don't mind that we didn't buy you anything?" Henry asks.

She looks around and smiles, "I'm just glad you're all here" she says, "Even you two" she adds pointing to Snow and Charming. You realise that all that really matters to her today is not being alone on her birthday, instead being surrounded by people who care about her. "Okay overly sentimental moment over" Emma says rolling her eyes, "Present time"

"Okay well if you're so impatient Sheriff, you can start" You're amazed at the back and forth between the pair of them; you know they're dating but the way they talk to each other really hasn't changed at all. You wonder now how you didn't notice and how everyone else doesn't. You catch Ruby's eyes from across the table and she gives a knowing glance to the pair of them before mouthing "told you so" to you. You roll your eyes at her and turn your attention back to the gift giving.

As 35th birthdays go the gifts are pretty strange: a stack of completed (overdue) paperwork offered with an apologetic smile, an apology and a truce that she accepts and returns, a coupon for free pancakes, the demand of a girl's night out which she tries and fails to turn down especially when the first round is thrown into the gift, a world's best patient certificate which she accepts with a knowing smirk, clearly an inside joke, a written promise not to use magic again, a journal that your father had in his shop but that has really old swirly patterns and even an apple on the cover so it is undeniably suited to her, you give her the list of nicknames. Henry saves himself for last and passes her a photo that Ruby took of her, you and him in this very booth. The gift collection is weird but she seems to love them all. "Thank you all so very much" she says.

"Really?" Emma says sheepishly.

"Yes" she says.

"Happy Birthday Sisgina"

"No, can I say no to all of these now?" she says gesturing to the list you've given her.

"No, you must wait until we've gone through them all"

"And then we can come up with more, right Dad?"

You laugh, "Sure kid" you say as she says "No"

"Lighten up Ri"

"Yeah lighten up Ri, it's your birthday" Emma joins in.

"Ri? I like it. It's cute." Ruby says.

"No" Regina says.

A chorus of "Happy Birthday Ri" bursts out around the table as you laugh and your thoroughly embarrassed sister hides her face in her hands.


	11. Beer and Baseball Bats

_AN: Hello again, Rickmantic wanted to see how Neal handled Emma and Regina's first big fight so you have them to thank for the utter madness of this chapter. Thank you as usual for your reviews :) Hope you like this chapter. _

You finally found a job, Emma agreed to let you be one of her deputies, though you wonder if that is just so she can sneak off and see your sister but still you won't say no to money. Your funds were beginning to run low enough that you were more than happy to become a Deputy. Besides in a town like Storybrooke there isn't that much to do in terms of policing anyway. Today however has been ridiculously busy, you had a late night with Ruby yesterday, you grin at the memory, which means that you were exhausted if not happy this morning. Unfortunately today was not the usual slow day, you had to hunt down several escaped dogs and one of them kept running out of the way as you tried to catch them resulting in a few thumps to the floor. You finally returned to the station knowing that you had reports waiting for you.

You would have complained but Emma seemed pretty annoyed today, luckily you were able to sense the tone of the room before cracking a joke. Reports are boring as hell. The phone rings and Emma leaves to go deal with whatever problem the person on the other end had. She leaves at 4 to go get Henry from school because it's her day and leaves you alone with a constantly ringing phone and a stack of paperwork.

Finally around 8 you finish your pile of papers and dump them on Emma's desk for her signature. Thank god today is over, you think. Ruby is working late at the diner tonight so you have the evening to yourself. You're looking forward to some beer and sleep after today but as you walk up to your door and see a figure sitting with their knees up in front of your door sniffling.

"Regina?" you ask.

She raises her head and you see tears quite visibly rolling down her face. "Hi" she says weakly.

You sit down next to her. "You okay?"

She looks at you as if to say 'what do you think?'

You smile, "Stupid question?" you ask.

"Yes" she says.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she shakes her head. "Would you like a drink?" to that she nods so you stand and offer her your hand which she takes.

* * *

She seats herself on a stool in your tiny kitchen and tries to wipe the tears from her eyes. She gives you a questioning look as you uncap a bottle of beer and pass it to her. "All I have is beer" you say.

"Fine" she takes the bottle giving it a mildly disgusted look before sipping it. "People drink this swill?" she asks.

You laugh, "Yeah, quite often"

She wrinkles her nose, "Cider is better"

You roll your eyes, "You would say that"

She smiles before looking down and staring intently at the label on the beer bottle. You frown; something is clearly wrong "Why aren't you with Emma tonight?"

She looks up before glumly replying, "She's having dinner with Snow and Charming tonight"

You don't understand, "So?"

She gives you a look and you understand, "They still don't know?" you ask.

She nods. "She won't tell them" she sniffs again.

You walk around and sit on the stool next to hers waiting for her to continue, "We had a fight" she says.

"Oh" you say, "What happened?"

"I want to tell them but she keeps saying to wait and that she's not ready to tell them yet. I don't see why we can't go public, I mean yes some people including her parents will probably be annoyed but once we get through that surely it will be worth it right?" you nod unsure what to say.

"Maybe she doesn't really care about me" she says looking down again.

"Oh Gina, she does but you know she hasn't known her parents very long, maybe you just need to give her time"

"But I want people to know. I'm so tired of keeping secrets Neal" she starts to cry again. You pull her in for a hug, both angry at Emma for making your sister cry and struggling to figure out what to say to reassure her at this moment. You've never really had to do this before. "I know you are sis, but you know what Emma's like, she cares about you and she will do it, she just needs more time"

"So what do I do?" she sobs.

"Just be patient. Tell her how you feel"

"I did, but she just kept saying that I wasn't trying to understand her feelings either but I do, I just want her to recognise mine too"

"I know" you say, "Look I'm really not very good at this whole comforting stuff but you know what I am good at?"

"What?" she asks.

"Being a drinking buddy. So how about for tonight we just have a drink together and talk about random crap and forget all the drama until morning?"

She smiles, "I'd like that"

* * *

You wake up with a small headache and run through the night before in your mind. You remember your main goal of this morning. You pick up your trusty old baseball bat, you're not planning on using it but you find a warning works better with a weapon. You sneak quietly into the living room where your sister is still sleeping on the couch snoring softly. You stifle a laugh as she kicks and rolls in her sleep and mumbles "dinosaur get off".

You quirk a brow at the strange sentence before writing her a quick note telling her there is coffee set up in the machine for when she wakes up and creep out the door, taking care to shut it gently. Right. You have a mission to accomplish. After all, no-one makes your sister cry.

You walk over to Emma's house so the fresh air can clear away the remnants of the alcohol from your system. You bump into your father.

"Dad, good morning"

"Morning son" he gives you a questioning look and gestures to the baseball bat slung over your shoulder.

"Oh Emma made Regina cry so I'm going to threaten her"

"The sheriff made her cry? How?" you forget that he also doesn't actually know. You pause trying to think of a plausible reason for their fighting.

"Uh… Henry?" you answer.

He sees right through that, "I don't believe you. I know she sees Henry nearly every day. She and Miss Swan have been having dinner with Henry every day but Thursday" he pauses clearly thinking something over.

You watch his face and see his eyes colour with realisation. "She and Miss Swan?!" he asks incredulously.

"Sh" you say trying not to draw attention, "Yes"

"Since when?"

You shrug. "A few weeks"

"How didn't I know?" he asks, more to himself but you answer anyway, "No-one does, except for me, Ruby, Henry and now you"

"I see. Their secrecy I assume is due to Miss Swan's parents?"

You nod.

"So tell me, how did Miss Swan make her cry?"

You look at him surprised. "Huh?"

"She is my daughter as well as your sister you know, no-one hurts my children Neal"

You smile and clue him in to the situation.

"I see. Do you have a plan in mind for dealing with Miss Swan?" he asks.

"Sort of"

"Son, always have a plan" he says. The pair of you continue your walk to Emma's. You listen intently as he proceeds to come up with some sort of elaborate plan. You laugh. "Dad, I don't think we need to start cursing and plotting against her. I feel a warning will do"

* * *

You knock on the door. It is answered by a bewildered looking Henry. "Hey Dad, hey Grandpa. What are you guys doing here? And why do you have a bat?"

You kneel down and beckon Henry closer, "Well you remember that conversation we had when your moms had their first date?"

He nods.

"Well your Ma made your Mom cry so I'm fulfilling my end of your deal"

"Okay" he says, "Can I help?"

"Really kid?"

"Yeah, no-one makes my mom cry but ma isn't here, she's gone down to the station already"

* * *

"How was dinner yesterday?" you ask Henry as the three of you wander down to the Sheriff's station.

"It was alright but Ma seemed kind of down, I guess that makes sense if she had a fight with Mom"

"Yeah"

"Why were they fighting anyway?"

You pause wondering if you should be telling the kid this, "Doesn't matter Henry"

"Yes it does" he says insistently.

You know he won't let this go, "Okay, your mom wants to tell people but your ma doesn't"

"Why not? Surely they'd be happy that Ma was happy?"

"Well Henry, some people aren't always that accepting" your father says.

"But if they're happy then surely that's all that matters right?"

"Well that's what I think kid, but I think your Ma is just worried about how people will react, some people will probably say some really horrible things and your Ma is probably trying to avoid all of that"

"Well she's the White Knight so she should be braver" Henry says.

Rumple laughs, "Smart kid, I think we should let him start"

You nod and enter the station.

"Hey shouldn't we all have bats?" Henry asks.

* * *

The three of you enter the stations, all with bats, you argued against it but your father and Henry outvoted you.

"Emma" you say.

"Hey Neal" she says not even looking up from her paperwork. "Wait, you're not in today" she frowns before raising her head from the files. She gives the three of you a confused frown. "What are you guys doing here? And is that a bat? Henry, why do you have a bat?"

"You made Mom cry" he says.

"And no-one makes Regina cry" Rumple adds.

Realisation dawns on her, "Oh crap."

"Yes Emma. I believe I warned you not to hurt my sister"

"Would it help if I said I didn't mean to?"

The three of you share a look, Henry shakes his head, so does your father. "No" you say on behalf of the three of you.

"Do you care about my daughter Miss Swan?" Rumple asks.

She nods, "Of course I do"

"So why won't you tell people Ma?"

She looks down, "I don't see why this is your business, this is between me and Regina" she says.

"It is until she turns up crying on my doorstep" you say.

"Was she really that upset?" she asks frowning.

You nod.

"Oh" she says looking down again.

"You shouldn't make Mom cry Ma. It doesn't matter what other people say, if she makes you happy and you make her happy then they'll just have to get used to it" Henry says staring seriously at his blonde mother.

She looks at him astounded by his comment, "Life isn't that simple kid"

Your father steps forward, "Miss Swan, I believe you are strong enough to be able to cope with how others react"

"Maybe I'm not as strong as everyone thinks" she sighs.

You sigh. "Emma, you need to man up. Seriously, I know you and you're a simpering little princess. You are Emma Swan and you have the guts to stand up for what you believe in and what you want so stop acting like an idiot, talk to my sister and be honest"

She stares at you open-mouthed digesting your words before setting her face in grim determination. "You're right, I'll go apologise to Regina and then I'll talk to my parents who will probably kill me"

"You're lucky I didn't crush you to dust. I could you know" Rumple adds.

She pales, "I guess I don't have to worry about telling you" she tries to joke.

"No" he says stepping forward, "Be warned dearie, that if you hurt my daughter again, I will let my son and grandson here use these bats"

She nods in understanding.

You see her mildly frightened face and smile, "Right, guys I think our job here is done, Emma my sister is currently in my apartment" you say holding out the keys.

"Thanks Neal"

You smile, "Sure thing, don't hurt my sister, you've now been told twice"

She nods.

You, Henry and your father walk out of the station leaving Emma to deal with Regina and Snow and Charming.

"So Dad, now that we're done threatening, can we go get breakfast?"

* * *

You return home from breakfast with your father and son to an empty and suspiciously cleaner apartment.

You wonder how things went with Emma before you see a note on the counter written in insanely neat writing:

_Morning Neal,_

_Thank you for the coffee. Emma came by and told me of how you armed our son and threatened her with a bat alongside our father. Just so you know, I think you have scared her sufficiently. Please do not arm our son again. I will however say thank you for doing that. Also I will consider Gina as you called me earlier a suitable nickname if you must use one :)_

_(Emma made me add the smiley face) _

_Regina_

You grin, clearly things went well. You smile at the end about the nicknames, she agreed to one but does she really think you'll stop there?


	12. The Anniversary

_AN: This chapter has a smidge of angst in it so sorry. There is some fluffiness though. Apologies for any mistakes. Also if you any ideas for stuff you want me to do in this please let me know. Hope you like this chapter :)_

"Wake up Neal" you groan, it's way too early to get up. "5 more minutes" you plead.

A pillow hits you square in the face, "Now Neal, come on"

"Ugh" you groan lifting your head and checking the clock before slumping back down, "Rubes, it's only 8 and it's Saturday. Let's sleep in"

"I'd love to" she says throwing herself down next to you, "But I have to be at the diner and you have breakfast with your sister and father today"

Oh yeah, you'd forgotten about that. Thank god Ruby can remember stuff like that, "Is that today?"

"Yes, Regina dropped several very unsubtle hints about it yesterday, I think she knew you'd forget" she smiles and lifts your arm up away from your face. "Now, come on get up"

"Fine" you say slowly lifting yourself up. She pulls you in for a kiss, "Ew" she says wrinkling her nose, "Morning breath"

You breathe into your hand, "It's not that bad"

She shakes her head laughing, at you, "I have wolf senses remember so it smells like 100 times worse"

She stands up signalling for you to get up as well. You slowly ease yourself out of bed, "Have a good day at work" you say.

She grins back at you, "Have fun at breakfast, will I see you later?" she asks.

You nod, "Yeah I'll swing by after breakfast"

She nods and waves at you, blowing a kiss as she walks out the door. You rub your face in your hands and see that you have about thirty minutes to get ready. Plenty of time right?

* * *

Wrong. You thought you'd make good time, you had ten minutes after you'd showered, dressed and brushed your teeth and it only takes ten minutes to get to your father's house from here so you were fairly confident. That is until you realise that your keys had decided to play a fun little game of hide and seek. Five minutes later, after turning most of your apartment upside down, you find them annoyingly enough in the pocket of your other jacket.

You hear your cell phone ringing from somewhere amongst a stack of take-out food wrappers and junk mail. You dig through it and just about answer the phone in time.

"Hello"

"Neal, where are you?" comes the clearly irritated voice.

"Hey Reggie, I am on my way now" you say.

"I am not in the mood for any of your ridiculous nicknames today Neal. What do you mean you're just leaving now?!" this comes at you in a quick angry shout. You're wondering what pissed her off this morning.

"Calm down, I lost my keys; I'll be there in ten minutes"

"You better be" she mutters before hanging up with a click.

Oh great, you think, breakfast with your father and apparently a moody as hell sister. This will be a fun morning. As you walk out the door you hear your phone beep from a text.

_Hey Neal, thought I'd give you a heads up, don't annoy your sister today please :) _That warning came a few seconds later than you needed it to.

So Em what did you do to annoy her?

_I have no idea, she just woke up in a mood_

Great, I'll try not to annoy her when I get there

_You're not there yet? She's going to rip your head off!_

Thanks for the support Em

_No problem_

* * *

It turns out that today is the day your car chooses not to start as well because luckily you weren't in a rush or anything. You give up on your car and run your way to your father's house. You check your watch as you arrive panting and gasping for breath, okay only twenty-five minutes late so it won't be that bad.

Luckily your father intervenes before your sister gets a chance to rant at you though she looks insanely annoyed about it. You wonder what the big deal is.

"Neal, now you're finally here we can eat" Rumple says.

You nod, "Okay, sorry I'm late, car trouble"

"Just glad you're here son"

"It's about time" she grits out.

"Hello to you as well Regina"

She shrugs and proceeds to turn away from you. You nudge her with your elbow, "Hey, what's up?"

She rolls her eyes, "Nothing" she says but she's lying.

"Obviously, seriously what's the big deal?"

"You're late" she grumbles.

"Again, what's the big deal?" you're really not getting this at all.

"Forget it" she mumbles and turns her attention back to her currently empty plate.

You sit in silence wearing a puzzled frown as you try to figure out what exactly her problem is today. Rumple then comes out to the quiet table and sets down bacon sandwiches.

"I don't know how to cook a lot of breakfast foods but I can do bacon sandwiches" he says with a smile trying to break the awkward cold silence that has fallen over the dining room.

"It's cool, I love bacon" you say grabbing a sandwich and drowning it in ketchup.

You catch your sister rolling her eyes at your use of the sauce, "What?"

"Have you considered eating food that isn't coated in sauce?" she scoffs before whipping the bottle out of your hand and squeezing the tiniest and neatest circle of sauce around her sandwich.

"Wow, food doesn't have to be neat you know"

"I apologise for not wanting to present my food like a barbarian"

"Jeez, what's wrong with you today? Lighten up its just sauce"

Rumple watches the back and forth between the two of you with a confused expression before piping up, "What is going on with the pair of you today?"

"Nothing" she grunts out, "Thank you for the sandwich"

You roll your eyes at her stubborn lie and evasion, "I don't know" you answer your father.

"Regina" he starts, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Can we just eat please?" she snaps.

You and Rumple share a look and decide to just let this go for the moment. Breakfast passes in a blur of small talk punctuated by awkward silences; you notice that the conversation is mostly between you and your father. Regina stays uncharacteristically quiet unless directly asked a question which worries you. She offers to clear the table leaving you and Rumple alone.

"What's going on with Regina today?" he asks.

You shrug, "I honestly have no idea, Emma says she woke up in some sort of mood"

He pauses and frowns, "She was very quiet, do you think something happened between her and Emma?"

You shake your head, "She'd say something"

"I'm worried"

You smile. "Why are you smiling?" he asks clearly confused.

"It's good, you're worried"

"I do worry about the two of you, you know" he grumbles.

You nod, "I know Dad, hey what's going on with Belle?"

"She's still in the hospital, doesn't seem to be remembering yet but hopefully she will soon" he smiles optimistically.

"Maybe she will soon"

He offers you a small smile. You hear a crashing sound from the kitchen and you both walk in to find Regina crying over a broken plate. "Neal get a dustpan and brush" he says and you comply finding it under the sink. Whilst you gather the pieces and clean up the mess, your father goes over to Regina to try and calm her down.

You hear her whispering "I'm sorry" over and over again.

He pulls her in for a hug and tells her that it's okay and that it's just a plate. You're surprised by her reaction, it is just a plate. As you hear her keep sobbing that she's sorry you realise why.

You empty the pieces into the trash and join your father and sister. "Regina" you say placing a hand on her shoulder, "It was an accident okay, and no-one is going to hurt you over a plate"

At you words, you see a look of realisation pass over your father's face. You see him grip her a little tighter in the hug. You see a flash of guilt as he thinks over what Cora must have done to make her like this. "He's right" he says, "I'm not going to hurt you over a plate. I'm not mad"

"Really?" she asks in a scarily small voice.

"Yes" he nods. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong with you today now?"

She frowns and thinks it over before leaning up and whispering something. A look of understanding appears on your father's face as he keeps her in the hug, "You could have cancelled"

She shakes her head as you look on in confusion. He mouths "Daniel" to you and then you get it. You move over to join the hug and the pair of you sandwich her in a hug as she cries over the anniversary of her first love's death. You don't really know what to say to her but the joint hug seems to be helping calm her.

* * *

You and Rumple ended up going down to the graveyard with her. Not how you expected the day to go, you dropped Ruby a text to tell her you weren't going to go by but that you'd definitely call her later to explain. Hopefully she'll understand that you need to be there for your sister today.

She asked to go in by herself so you and Rumple are waiting outside for her on the steps.

"Do you think she'll be alright?" you ask your father.

He looks at you and puts an arm around you in a small half hug, "I think so Neal, Regina, she's very good at being strong"

"She shouldn't have to be" you say angered at what she went through in her life.

"I know son, but you have to remember she has us and she has Emma so she has people to talk to and to help her now"

You nod, "I've never seen her that upset before" you admit with a frown.

"Neither have I" he says softly.

"Really?"

"She's very good at keeping things bottled up Neal."

You nod, you have noticed that she puts up a shield a lot, you can't blame her, you've done the same thing in the past. "I know"

"She'll be alright" he says to reassure you.

The rest of the time you spend in silence waiting for her to emerge. After about an hour she comes out on clearly shaky legs and with tearstains on her cheeks.

Your father reaches out to steady her. She doesn't shrug him off an action which he definitely notices. "You okay?" you ask.

She shakes her head. You give her a sympathetic smile. "What do you want to do?"

"I just want to go home" she says.

You nod.

* * *

Rumple drives the pair of you over to her mansion and you sit with her in the backseat of the car. She falls asleep resting against your shoulder and you notice your father smiling at the two of you through the mirror.

He helps you get her inside the house and settle her on the couch. You watch as he covers her with a blanket and gives her a small kiss on the forehead before he joins you in the foyer.

He runs his hand through his hair, a nervous habit, "I should go home" he says. You pick up on his hesitance to leave, "I'll stay with her until Emma gets back Dad"

He gives a small smile, "Thank you Neal, you're a good brother, take care of her" he says.

"I will" you nod.

She wakes up about an hour later and groggily stretches out finding herself tangled in blanket. She notices you sitting across from her reading one of Henry's comics. "That's Henry's" she says.

"I know"

"Thanks for staying" she says.

You move and sit down next to her, "Anytime"

"I thought you had plans with Ruby?"

"I'll see her later, I figured I'd hang out here with you until Emma gets here"

She gives you a small smile. "Thank you"

"Want to talk about?"

She shakes her head.

"Want to read comic books as a distraction and argue about who's the best superhero?"

She smiles and nods. "We've been over this. It's Batman" She looks over your shoulder at the comic you have in your hands, "The Hulk is good too"

* * *

"Does Emma know what today is?" you ask her about twenty minutes later.

She shakes her head.

"You should tell her"

"I know"

"She worries about you"

She smiles, "I know"

"So you gonna tell her?"

"I will, just later"

"Okay"

"Sorry, I snapped at you at breakfast"

You smile, "It's okay, I think I'll give you a free pass on that one"

"A free pass?"

"Yeah, it means I'll let you off given circumstances"

"Can I have a set number of those?"

"What?" you laugh.

"Well like can I have four free passes a week or something?"

"Well normally it's just like on your birthday or on days like today so you don't get four a week"

"How about two a week?" she persists.

"How about one a year?" you reply.

"Hm. Doesn't sound very fair, two a month?"

You consider it, "Can I get the same?"

She nods.

"Fine, deal" you hold out your hand which she shakes and says "Deal".


	13. Magic Fight

_AN: Onellabella (on Tumblr) suggested to me 'magic shenanagins (I don't think I spelt that right) with Rumple and Regina and this is my brain did with it. Pure crack this. I do not own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed this. Hope you like this part :)_

I'm having lunch with Ruby at the diner, as usual, I swear without this place I would probably starve to death.

"You better pay for that meal today Mr Cassidy" Granny tells me setting down our orders, I offer a cheeky smile hoping to placate her, I don't think she has quite warmed up to me yet.

Ruby glares at her, "Gran" she smirks before rolling her eyes. "Ignore her Neal"

I smile, "Nah it's fine, I'll get this one"

"If you insist"

Unfortunately your banter is interrupted by my damn cell phone. I pick up offering Ruby an apologetic smile.

"Hello"

"Hi Neal" the voice on the other end sounds mildly panicked.

"Emma? Everything okay?"

"Can you come over to the pawn shop?"

"Uh, is it important? I'm kind of in the middle of lunch right now"

"Neal. There are random multi-coloured sparks and shouts coming from the shop"

I sigh before lowering the phone, "Ruby I may have to put a pin in this date"

She leans over and kisses me, "Okay but you owe me one"

I smile at her, "Tonight, I'll take you out for dinner, somewhere that isn't here"

She grins, "I'll look forward to that, see ya later"

"See ya later" I smile before kissing her again, "Bye Granny" I say adding in a wave.

"Mr Cassidy"

"I think she's warming up to me Rubes"

She laughs, "Yeah, I'm sure she'll come around eventually, now go deal with the latest family panic"

I nod before picking up the phone, "Emma, I'm on my way over now"

"Okay, make sure you hurry"

* * *

_Rumple invited me over to his shop to work on securing the border spell around Storybrooke. After a vote in the town council it was decided that people would rather keep outsiders away from the town then be able to leave it and explore elsewhere. I wander in to see him with a huge stack of books on the counter and part of me silently wishes we won't have to go through all of them. _

"_Are those all for today?" _

"_Yes" he smiles at my look of horror at the thought of having to read through dozens of spell books in ancient languages. _

"_Relax Regina, I'm sure between the two of us it won't take too long to get through these" _

"_It is going to take us all day!" I argue. _

"_Maybe a few hours dearie but it's for the safety of the town after all" _

"_Fine, fine, but we better at least break for food" I know I'm grumbling but a day of magical research was not how I envisioned my entire day. _

"_Deal" he says extending a hand which I shake before sitting down on a stool across from him, Fine where do we start?" _

_(Thirty minutes later) _

_God this is mundane, seriously so boring and I spend most of my day looking over town reports and budgets but that is more exciting than this. Plus this book is in some insanely complicated language, I come across one spell but it's hard to tell exactly what it says. I glance over and see that Rumple is engrossed in his book so won't notice if I have to mouth this out. I start reading the words slowly and quietly to myself before I notice him giving me a strange look, I finish before saying "Rumple?" so I can figure out why he's staring at me. Suddenly though a swirl of magic forms over him and he's gone. _

"_Rumple?!" I ask now a little panicked because I realise I don't know what the spell I was reading does and clearly I've accidentally cast it on him. _

"_Regina? What did you do?" _

_I look around the shop but I can't see him anywhere, "Where are you?"_

"_I'm on the other side of the counter dearie, now what did you do?" _

_I frown and pick up the book and attempt to read over the spell again before sighing, "I don't know"_

"_What do you mean you don't know?" he sounds incredulous. _

"_It's in some sort of ancient language and I don't know what it says" hopefully he can fix this._

_I hear a sigh from across the counter, "Hand me the book" _

_I pick up the book but since I can't see him slide it across the counter. _

_I wait feeling annoyingly nervous and tap my fingernails on the counter while I wait for him to tell me what it is. _

"_You turned me invisible" he says._

"_It was an accident" I huff feeling defensive._

"_Still, you turned me invisible."_

_True but still an accident, "Well can you reverse it?" I hope he can because I'm not certain how. _

_A swirl of smoke appears and I can see him again, I smile glad to see whatever I did was reversible. He suddenly points a finger at me; "You turned me invisible" his tone is accusatory but mockingly so. _

"_Accidentally" _

_A smirk appears on his face before a burst of magic smoke swirls towards me, I cough as it hits before realising I am somehow on the ground. This feels weird, I go to look at my hands and see they are now paws. "What did you do?!" I shout. _

_He laughs, "Payback" before producing a mirror and now I see that he has turned me into a puppy. _

"_At least what I did was an accident!" I say and attempt to scowl which is surprisingly hard to do with puppy face. _

_I snarl at him before raising a paw at him and sending a puff of magic his way and turn myself back into a person. I laugh as my now tortoise father glares at me, "Oh it's on now Regina"_

* * *

I run over to the pawn shop and see Emma standing outside with a bewildered and panicked expression on her face.

"Hey Em, what's up?"

"I'm not sure, I went in to see what was going on but I couldn't see anyone"

"You said something about magic sparks?"

"Yeah"

"Maybe they disappeared?"

"Well where would they go then?"

I don't get a chance to answer as there is another bout of magic sparks coming from there and a shout of "That isn't fair!" which sounds an awful lot like my sister.

I look over at Emma but she seems as confused as I am. "Okay we should go in there" she says before gesturing for me to enter first.

"You're the Sheriff, you go first" I say.

"You're better at diffusing these situations though" she half whines.

"You're still the Sheriff"

"Okay, how about if you go in first I'll let you have this Friday off"

I consider this, "Will you do my paperwork?"

She frowns and glares at you but then there's another random magic sparky thing, "Fine, deal, now after you"

* * *

You both enter to the sound of laughter and the poofs of magic clouds and hear a shout of "Watch out!" before seeing a ladybird next to your shoe and a panicked looking butterfly.

"What the hell? Did those bugs just speak?" Emma asks stunned.

I don't answer instead frowning wondering what the hell is going on, I can see a bunch of books open on the counter and remember that they were supposed to be sorting out the border spell. "Regina? Dad?" you call.

Emma in turn yells out "Regina? Babe, you in here?"

No answer to either question but you both turn when you can hear a snicker from the corner of the shop but no obvious source to it before another swirl of purple smoke and two snakes appear at which Emma screams and leaps up onto a chair.

"SNAKES!"

The two snakes start laughing and I hear a whispered, "That's just mean Dad" before a puff of smoke and one of the snakes turns into a hamster before scurrying over to Emma's chair. "What the hell?" Emma asks clearly confused.

The hamster at her feet is suddenly turned into a rat at which it gives out an indignant squeak and says "A rat?! Ew" before raising a tiny paw and turning the snake into a fluffy kitten. "Aw cute" Emma says.

"Excuse me?" comes from both the rat and the kitten.

"I am not cute Miss Swan" the kitten snarls.

I turn with a frown before asking "Dad?"

"Yes Neal, Regina can you reverse this now?

"Will you turn me back from a rat?"

"Apologise for turning me invisible"

"It was an accident!"

Emma and I share a confused look, clearly you're missing something here. "What the hell is going on here?" I ask.

The kitten raises an accusatory paw at the rat now sitting on Emma's shoulder, "She turned me invisible"

"It was an accident, I didn't mean to cast the spell"

"Why not just apologise?" Emma asks turning to stare at the rat before a cloud of smoke engulfs it and it turns into a koala bear. The bear suddenly lets out a small yelp before nearly tumbling off Emma's shoulder; luckily she catches it in time and lets it cling around her neck. The bear turns when it hears me start to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"Now, you really are a Gina bear"

Emma laughs, "What? It's cute" she says to the koala's disapproving look. She glares at the kitten before turning into a bunny rabbit.

"Okay guys, did you at least figure out the barrier spell?" Emma asks.

This may be the first time I've ever seen a bunny and a koala bear look sheepish but somehow they manage it. "I'll take that as a no" I say before reaching over and removing my bear sister from Emma and placing her on the floor next to my rabbit father.

"Right you two, are we done being childish?"

"I am not childish" Regina huffs.

"Neither am I son"

My brow quirks up at the insane denial given their current forms. Luckily Emma voices this, "You guys do realise that argument kind of doesn't work after a magical animal transforming fight"

"Regina, Dad apologise to each other"

I swear the koala bear rolls her eyes at me before muttering "Fine, I'm sorry I turned you invisible"

"Good, Dad something you'd like to say?"

"I'm sorry for starting a magic fight and behaving like a child"

"Excellent now shake hands"

"You should make them hug" Emma suggests.

I laugh at the picture in my mind and wonder how a koala bear and a rabbit would even go about hugging. As it is they are struggling on the shaking hands, well paws part.

"Guys, why don't you just turn each other back?" Emma asks.

"Or as punishment for misusing magic we make them stay like this for the rest of the day" I threaten.

"You wouldn't dare" Regina says whilst glaring at you the best way she can.

"It's probably better if we just let them turn back into people Neal"

"I agree with Miss Swan, now Regina if you don't mind" the bunny finishes this point by using a paw to gesture to his fluffy form.

The bear nods before raising a paw and turning him back into a man. Rumple gestures towards the koala bear and turns her back into Regina. The pair of them both stumble around a little dizzily before leaning up against the counter.

Regina groans whilst grabbing her stomach.

Emma and I both frown, "What's wrong with you guys?" I ask noticing Rumple grimacing as well.

"All magic comes with a price" he mumbles.

"I don't understand" Emma says.

"Transformation spells tend to make a person rather queasy Emma" Regina says leaning heavily onto the counter.

"Oh" she turns to you, "I have to go back to the station Neal, so you can deal with these two?"

"What?" I ask.

"Emma" Regina whines.

"Sorry babe, someone's got to look after the station, I'll come see you later, have fun Neal" she smirks at you, kisses Regina on the forehead and walks out the door.

"I think I'm going to be sick" Regina whines again.

You groan internally at the two whining grimacing people leaned up against the counter and wonder what you're supposed to do with them.

* * *

(Four hours later)

In the end I took them both back to Rumple's house since it was closer. They've both spent the entire afternoon acting like total babies, who'd have thought the Dark One and the Evil Queen were such whiny sick people?

Luckily they both collapsed asleep about an hour ago which has given me some peace. I took the time to call Ruby and set up dinner plans for tonight and settle in to wait for Emma to come get Regina.

She stirs and groans before looking at me, "Never again" she mutters.

I smile before handing her a glass of water, "Well hopefully you've learned your lesson. No more magic fighting" I scold her jokingly and tap her on the nose.

"Shut up" she laughs rolling her eyes, "No more magic fights?"

"Nope"

"Not even fun ones?"

"Nope"

"That doesn't sound fair"

"Tough. No more magic fights"

She pouts, "Such a mean big brother" she says playfully before rolling her eyes.

"I know. I'm the worst" I add playing along. "Still no more magic fighting"

"Fine, did you scold Dad too?"

"I did it earlier while you were asleep"

"We still need to figure out how to secure the town" she yawns.

"Yeah you do, maybe next time you won't accidentally turn our father invisible. How did you do that anyway?"

She laughs, "The books are in this really old language and I couldn't tell what it said so I read it aloud to myself but when I said Rumple after because he was staring at me the spell hit him"

"Oh dear, did you at least have fun today?"

She nods smiling, "Yes, it was actually kind of nice"

"You turned each other into animals and spent the afternoon sick because of it. What was nice about it?"

She gives me a small smile before looking down, "Well I had fun with Dad and then we spent the afternoon together as a family so it was nice"

"Perhaps next time our family bonding could involve less magic and less sickness?"


	14. Family Bonding Part 1

_AN: Hello again, I'm sorry for the wait but I've had a crazy few days at work so this took me longer than expected to write up. I still don't own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Hope you like this chapter :)_

_Family Bonding Part One_

I'm lying on top of my bed flicking through brochures trying to find a fun family activity for me, my sister and my dad. After the incident at the pawn shop they both, somewhat begrudgingly, agreed to let me pick a family bonding activity for the three of you. Only problem being that I have no idea what to choose to do.

I sigh in frustration before discarding another leaflet. I hear my door click open and Ruby walks in. "Hi" she grins before I pull her in for a hug. "Hi" I say before leaning in and kissing her. "How was work?" I ask. She groans, "Long" she rolls so that she's sitting up next to me, "What's with all the flyers?" she says picking one up. "Oh, I have to pick a 'family bonding activity' for me, Rumple and Regina." She laughs, looking at some of the leaflets with a bemused smirk, "Good luck with that, I'm seeing a lot of outdoor activities here, you have met Regina?" I laugh back, "I like outdoor activities, they're fun."

She picks up another leaflet before handing it to me, I look it over before fixing her with a bemused stare, "Camping?" I ask. She shrugs, "Why not? That way you can do any of these outdoor activities and nothing says family bonding like being forced to sleep in a tent and hunt for your own food" I ignore her sarcastic tone, "Camping is fun Rubes, it's an adventure, you know what I'm going to go for camping"

She laughs, "Good luck with that, Regina and Rumple in a tent or doing anything outdoors? I would pay to see that" I smile at her, "How about a deal?" at her quirked eyebrow I continue, "I will send you pictures if next weekend you go camping with me and I'll show you how fun it is." She thinks it over before smiling, "A weekend trip?" I nod. She grins excitedly, "You have yourself a deal" she leans forward before kissing me again before hopping off the bed enthusiastically starting on a list of things she needs to do to prepare for this. It's only then that I realise the significance: our first trip together. I grin realising I just inadvertently turned us into a semi-serious couple. Odd, I kind of expected to panic at this moment but there's none of that, just a comfortable happy feeling. I smile again before picking up the phone and think of ways to persuade Regina and Rumple to come camping.

* * *

I pull up outside the mansion on Friday to see Emma basically pulling an arguing Regina down the driveway before stopping at the car. Convincing Regina did not exactly go well, eventually I had to use one of my free passes but she still wasn't overjoyed about the prospect. "Regina it will be fun" I hear Emma say as she hands me Regina's luggage which I add to the camping gear. "Is this camping appropriate stuff?" I ask having seen my sister's typical wardrobe, admittedly today she's wearing jeans and a t-shirt that I'm fairly certain is Emma's but she's not exactly a casual clothes kind of girl. Emma nods, "I packed for her" I see Regina roll her eyes before grumbling something about jeans and camping, "She's really looking forward to it" Emma deadpans. I laugh before opening the door for my frowning sister. "Take good care of Henry Emma" she mumbles. Emma leans over and kisses her, "It's just two nights Regina, we'll be fine, have fun" she laughs. Regina sighs, "I'll try, I love you" she smiles. "Love you too, see you on Sunday" she waves as we pull away.

"So Genie, you ready for camping?" I ask hoping she accepts the attempt at levity. She wrinkles her nose, I'm not sure if it's at the nickname or the idea of camping. "No on Genie, makes me think of Sydney" she wrinkles her nose again, "You have bug spray right?" I look at her, "Yes Mills, I have bug spray"

"Lots of it?"

"We're only going away for two days!"

"There are lots of horrible bugs outdoors Neal" she huffs.

"Don't worry about it RiMi"

"RiMi?" she ask confusedly.

"Ri for Regina, Mi for Mills, that's one of Henry's." I reply as we pull up outside of the pawn shop to see our father wearing a suit. "He's wearing a business suit" I laugh pointing it out to Regina who tries and fails to stifle a laugh, "You did tell him we were camping outside right?" she asks. I nod before winding down the window, "Dad," I call alerting his attention, I may also have had to resort to pleading and the "only son" argument to get him to actually come. He looks thrilled to be here, he offers a small smile in greeting before setting his face into a grim line of displeasure and placing his suitcase into the trunk of your car. He slides into the backseat nodding a hello to Regina.

"Why are you wearing a suit?" Regina asks.

"I like to look my best" he replies.

"You do realise we'll be outside" he nods, "A suit will be highly impractical, Emma informed that casual clothes are needed for camping, I'm fairly certain she just filled that bag with ridiculous clothing" she adds tugging on the t-shirt she's currently wearing.

I roll my eyes as they complain about casual clothing and question the merit of camping. It's going to be a long weekend.

* * *

Both of them groan and complain when I ask for their help in unloading the car but for god's sake the trunk is full of enough camping equipment for three people and we're only going to have to carry it a matter of metres. I fix them both with my best glare before telling them to just shut up and help already. I laugh as they look at me with identical looks of incredulous disdain. In response I throw Regina's bag at her which she just about catches before telling Dad to grab his suitcase. I can see they're both about to complain. "Look guys stop the complaining, we are sharing responsibility and work load during this trip which means all of us carrying things and helping with set up. If one of us wants to do an activity then we all do it"

"If I want to go home does that mean we can all do that?" Regina asks snippily.

"No"

"You said an activity, leaving is an activity"

"No it isn't, it's giving up and ruining what can be a fun trip if we all work together. Now can we all just do our part in setting up so we can get onto fun stuff or we can stand here arguing all day. What's it going to be?" I ask feeling mildly like a stern parent.

They both still grumble before walking up to the trunk and picking out bits and pieces from the car. I grab the tents knowing that neither of them will want to carry the heavier stuff, I settled on getting two tents figuring that Regina would be better off in her own tent. Once all the stuff is unloaded and divided up I proceed to walk in front of them.

"We don't have to walk too far do we?" I hear Regina ask in a whiny tone.

"No, just over that hill" I reply pointing to a hill not too far away.

"Urgh, that's ages! Why are there so many damn bugs around Neal? Where is that bug spray?" I quickly toss her the can which she misses and then moans about when it lands in a puddle just in front of her. She picks it up gingerly clearly more annoyed by the bugs then the puddle. I hear her start spraying and hope that will put an end to her fussiness.

I hear my father cough from behind me, "I think that's more than enough spray Regina. You know I could just use magic to keep them off" he suggests before I turn around and raise my finger at him, "NO MAGIC!" you'd think after last week's incident they would learn their lesson.

They both frown. "Not even to set up the tents?" Regina asks.

"For no reason. No magic at all" I say growing frustrated. I assumed we'd be at the site by now. Somehow these two have managed to make the journey take about ten times longer than it needs to be.

I sigh and keep walking forward leaving the pair of them to bicker about bug spray.

* * *

I sit down at the site and begin to unload the tents before sitting down on a nearby log to wait for the other two. I spend ten minutes in peace with just the sounds of nature and the lake nearby before wondering where exactly the other two are. I walk back up the hill to see Regina helping our father navigate over the various bumps and sticks as his cane causes some difficulty in getting up the path. I smile at seeing them finally work together on this trip.

They eventually reach the top and I smile at them, Regina returns it but my father fixes me with a look before informing that I owe him a new cane. He walks himself over to the log before dusting off invisible dirt from his suit. I smile at the image, you'd think centuries in the Enchanted Forest would leave them both more prepared.

"What do we have to do next?" Regina asks.

"Tents" I say. She frowns in confusion before I gesture to the unassembled tents on the floor.

"What do we have to do with those?" she asks.

I stare back at her stunned, "Have neither of you done this before?" they both shake their heads, "Not even back in the enchanted forest?" I ask surprised.

"I was a queen and before that the daughter of a prince, I never needed to camp outdoors like a peasant"

"We may have been poor but we always had a house Neal, and when I was the Dark One I too had a castle"

I run my hands over my face, "Okay, well in this land camping is an activity that families do together as a means of fun, holiday and bonding"

They nod and Regina gestures for me to continue, "We sleep in tents, fish, hike, talk over a fire, enjoy nature, that sort of thing"

They stare back at me with somewhat confused looks "it's fun, can we just try it?" I ask. They look at my pleading face and begrudgingly agree before the focus switches back to the tents. "How do we do this?" Regina asks gesturing to the tents.

* * *

After about an hour of fumbling and fed-up yelling as they both struggled with the various parts of the tents, they are finally assembled. I step back and look at the two tents assessing if they're set up correctly, well they look sturdy enough. I did manage to get several photos of Regina and my father making tent set up look about as difficult as rocket science. Seriously, two of the most powerful and feared people of the land and they can't set up two tents without falling over and in one hilarious instance getting trapped in the fabric. I turn to the two very frazzled looking people standing by our tents, camera in hand, at which Regina begins to shield her face and adamantly refusing to have her picture taken.

"Why not?" I ask laughing at her behaviour.

"Neal, we were just setting up these infernal contraptions, we're all sweaty and messy, I'll look terrible" she huffs.

"Regina, no-one is going to care"

For a moment I think her eyes will bulge out of her head, "I care!" she yells.

"Regina, it's a camping trip, people will be more surprised if you don't look at least a little bit like you've been outdoors"

"No pictures" she says crossing her arms over her chest. I see our father roll his eyes before mouthing something to me. I smirk at his plan. It's insane but it might just work.

As he silently sidles up to a defiant Regina, I stare at Regina matching her defiant look, "Come on Regina"

"No" she says shaking her head completely oblivious to Rumple approaching her.

Before I can argue against her again Rumple quickly wraps an arm around her shoulder. She turns to look at him giving me the perfect opportunity to run up and squeeze in beside them before quickly snapping a picture off. Regina turns to me in shock and horror, "Neal! Get rid of that picture!" she yells.

I shake my head holding the camera out of her reach, "Nope, the picture stays"

She huffs and groans before storming off and over to sit by the lake. I watch as Rumple wanders over to join them, a large smattering of mud now covering his suit, another thing I'm paying for, before turning my attention to the camera. It's actually a pretty good picture of the three of us even if we all do look a little squished. I turn to make sure that neither Regina nor Rumple are looking before taking another quick picture and then hiding the camera in my pocket in the hopes that prevents any attempts at thievery and photo deleting.

* * *

Dinner went unsurprisingly unsmoothly. Both of them turned their noses up in disgust at the mere prospect of food cooked over a fire but alas for them it was that or nothing. Though admittedly Regina did attempt the hunger strike for all of 45 minutes before given in due to her mild fear that the noise of her stomach growling would alert wild animals over to our campsite.

"Do we have utensils?" Rumple asks as I hand him sausage in a bun to form a makeshift hot-dog.

I laugh before realising he's deadly serious, "No Dad, no utensils"

"So how do we eat this?" he asks staring at the hot-dog as if it's the most offensive thing he's ever seen.

"With your mouth"

He rolls his eyes at my tone and answer before begrudgingly raising it to his mouth. "I guess it isn't too bad" he admits.

I hand Regina one who eyes it with disdain before slowly chewing it. The meal passes in silence aside from the occasional noise of birds in the woods. Regina coughs and clears her throat before grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler you brought up, "Emma told me that people tell ghost stories when they go camping"

I nod, "Yeah they do"

"So"

"So what?" I ask wary of where this is going.

"So why don't you tell us one?"

"Why me?" I ask.

"You've been camping before so I imagine you must have some fairly decent stories to tell us"

Rumple nods in agreement before limping off into the woods. You wish you'd had your camera out when you informed them of the bathroom situation. Apparently when Emma told Regina things about camping she missed out the whole lack of facilities bit. Their expressions though. Priceless. I smirk to myself remembering the image. "Neal" Regina suddenly waves her hand in my face to get my attention, "A ghost story?"

"Impatient much?" I smirk.

"I would like to know what's so good about them"

"Mostly we just tell them to freak each other out, we need to wait until it's a bit darker though"

"Why?"

"Atmosphere" I shrug.

She nods slowly, "So what do we until then?"

I look at my watch, we've probably only got about an hour until it gets dark and spooky enough for ghost stories, "We can just drink beer and talk"

"That's it?"

"Well we don't have time to do anything else"

"Sounds pretty boring" she shrugs before grabbing a beer from the cooler.

"Fine we can play I Spy" I say sarcastically.

She laughs, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with M"

* * *

"You can't have future!" Regina yells.

"Why not?" Rumple asks.

"Dad," I say, "The point is things you can see"

"I can see the future"

"We can't" Regina argues.

"So?"

"So it isn't fair, it has to be things everyone can see"

He considers this before sighing and begrudgingly admitting defeat. I see Regina shiver and tell her to go grab a jumper or something. She returns with a jumper, also definitely Emma's, and a bunch of blankets before handing them out to each of us mumbling something about the cold. I look around and see the pitch black sky with just a handful of stars, there are a few clouds gathered above and the scene is just cold and eerie enough now for campsite stories.

* * *

…. "And as the group slept blissfully unaware in their tents, a howling wind whistled through the woods. The howling grew louder and louder finally stopping as the creature stirs from its resting place in the cave. The beast crept slowly through the woods careful to avoid alerting the slumbering group." I pause in my story to look over at the others, Regina is sitting on the edge of the log, her face a mix of fear and excitement for the story to continue, our father seems utterly indifferent to the actual story but is quite amused by Regina's reactions to it. I smile before carrying on. "The only noise now was the slight rustling of the leaves as the beast's heavy paws began to glide through the campground. John stirred slightly in his tent having been awoken by a strange rustling sound. He looked around cautiously seeing everyone else in his party still peacefully asleep. He sighed, wondering what he could possibly have heard when he heard it again; a quiet rustling accompanied by a low growl. The beast lurked on the edge of the site, the scent of barbequed meat still marking the air drawing him ever closer to the sleeping campers. John stiffened suddenly feeling a cold chill run up his spine, he rose slowly inching ever closer to the zip of the tent. His hand froze at the bottom as he heard the growl again. The beast took another step closer. John's hand shook as he slowly pulled the zip up. He cautiously poked his head out before stepping out onto the cold dewy ground shivering as the cool night air bit at his body. He took a step forward before freezing at the sound of a feral snarl. He turned frantically feeling the panic rise up in him before" a loud yelp interrupts me and I look across to see Regina on the floor and our father laughing hysterically.

"What happened?" I ask.

"He scared me" Regina huffs before seating herself back up on the log.

"I just placed my hand on her shoulder" he smirks trying and failing to control his giggles.

"And growled!"

At this I laugh, "You were scared by my story"

"Was not" she crosses her arms defensively.

"Yeah right" I say rolling my eyes. I stifle a yawn, "Come on let's go to sleep, we've got a busy day of camping activities tomorrow"

They both nod. Rumple hugs Regina, "Good night, watch out for monsters" he laughs. She responds with a glare "Good night"

She turns to me after he's gone in the tent, "There aren't really strange monsters out here right?"

I nod, "You're safe Regina, good night"

"You wouldn't let me be eaten by wild beasts?" she asks.

I roll my eyes. "No, Regina I wouldn't let you be eaten by wild animals. Good night"

"Did you hear a rustling noise?" she asks panic creeping into her tone.

"No Gina, no noises, go to sleep"

"But what if I hear something?"

"You won't" I say steering her towards her tent.

"That means they can just eat me without me hearing them come near. I won't have time to defend myself against them Neal!"

"Regina, there are no beasts, go to sleep"

"I better not get eaten" she grumbles.

"You're not going to get eaten Regina"

She takes a deep breath, "If you say so, good night"

"Good night. Don't let the bedbugs bite"

I laugh walking into my tent hearing Regina call out, "Wait. Bedbugs?!"

_AN 2: Okay, hope you liked this part, I don't know when the next chapter of this will be done, it depends on my work schedule. Hopefully it will be up over the weekend. Let me know what you think, thanks for reading :)_


	15. Family Bonding Part 2

_AN: Okay second part of the family bonding trip now. I would like to thank the people sticking with this story, you guys rock. I still do not own Once, just potential mistakes (sorry!) and my own writing insanity. Hope you enjoy :)_

This might just be the worst night's sleep I've ever had, apparently Rumpelstiltskin can harness all the magic he likes but cannot control his snoring. I hold my pillow over my ears but somehow the noise is still coming through. After what feels like hours I finally feel the weight of sleep dragging me down but then I hear a loud rustling. I sit upright and rub the exhaustion from my eyes wondering what the noise could be, I hear the zip go up and Regina runs in looking both tired and flustered. "Neal" she whispers.

"Regina?" my voice sounds groggy.

"Neal, I think they're something in my tent" I groan internally. "I'm sure there's nothing in your tent Regina, go back to sleep."

"Neal, I heard a noise"

"Are you sure? You might just have been dreaming"

"Neal what if it's a demon?"

"I'm sure there isn't a demon in your tent 'Gina"

She still finds time to scoff at the nickname, "Neal! Can you at least check? Please?!" I roll my eyes at this, one of the most feared queens in all the realm and I have to go check her tent for imaginary demons. Fantastic.

"Fine" I say gingerly getting up.

"Be careful" she whispers keeping herself behind me and gripping my arm so tightly I can feel bruises forming.

"Regina, seriously you're hurting my arm"

"Sorry, did you hear that?" she asks panic rising into her tone.

"Yes Regina, it was the wind"

"I bet it was some rangy disgusting animal coming to eat us all"

"I bet it isn't"

I hold up my flashlight and peer inside her tent, shockingly it's empty. . I yelp as a form suddenly falls into me, "What?! What is it?! Is it a snake?!" the yell comes from right behind me letting me know that the thing that hit me was less a creature, more of a panicking 5ft 4in woman. "No Regina, not a snake, you startled me"

"Sorry"

"There's nothing in here Regina"

"Are you sure?"

I sigh and guide the flashlight around the tent, "See? Nothing here"

"Maybe it's hiding" she whispers.

"Why are you whispering?" I ask.

"I don't want it to hear me"

"There's nothing here Regina, go back to sleep"

I walk past her and prepare to leave but she suddenly grabs my arm, "You're leaving?"

"Yeah, I'm going back to my tent now, go to sleep"

"What if it comes back?"

"There's nothing here"

"Not now"

"Nothing is getting into your tent Regina"

"Only because you're here. There was something here!" she insists.

"Regina" I begin but she cuts me off, "Please don't go" I'm about to reason with her but then she pulls out her pouty face. I sigh, "Fine, let me just go grab my sleeping bag" at her worried expression I hand her the flashlight, "Here, use this, you'll at least be able to see if something is coming but it won't"

She nods before holding the light to her chest like some kind of shield. I roll my eyes again before walking outside and getting into my tent. I grab the sleeping bag not even slightly disturbing my father and hoist it over my shoulder. I look down at my wristwatch, it's 4am already and I've managed to get a good 47 minutes sleep, should be plenty for camping activities. I walk back into Regina's tent and am instantly blinded, "Holy crap! Regina, it's just me, please drop the light"

"Sorry"

"It's fine" I say throwing down the bag. "Don't forget to zip up the tent or the bugs will get in" she says.

"It's zipped up, no bugs, no animals, nothing will get in"

She nods lying down in her tent, "Okay, good night"

"Night."

I shut my eyes hoping to at least sleep for another couple of hours before, "Neal?! Did you hear that?"

* * *

I stretch my arms and yawn as I see that it now daylight. This camping trip is turning out to be absolutely exhausting, I rub my eyes with my palms before exiting the now empty tent. I walk out onto our campsite and see Regina and Rumple eating toast and drinking coffee. Our father looks irksomely well rested, I swear if tonight there are "creatures" in Regina's tent he can deal with them. "Morning" I groan. I hate mornings.

"Good morning" god they are far too chipper for this time of day. "How are you so alert?" I ask Regina knowing full well she got as little sleep as I did.

"Coffee, this is my fourth cup" she grins. Fourth? It's only 7 I think. Hopefully today's activity will wear out that caffeine.

"Okay, right well let me get dressed and we can go hiking" I announce receiving one look of coffee buzzed excitement and one look of absolute horror.

* * *

I am so exhausted I think internally groaning as Regina practically glides over rocks, sticks and up slopes ahead of us. I'm beginning to wonder if the woman is somehow being powered by batteries or something, there is no way she cannot be tired, right? I sigh sitting down on a rock just to ease my aching muscles for a few moments.

"Mind if I join you for a few seconds son?"

I shake my head, "No, pull up a rock"

"Thank you" he looks ahead to were Regina is now frowning in our general direction, "Do you think she's ever going to stop moving?" he asks clearly as exasperated as I am.

"I have no idea, why did you let her have so much coffee?"

"Oh yes because I would have been able to stop her" he rolls his eyes adding the sarcasm to his voice as he goes.

"You could have snuck through some decaf" I mutter.

"We didn't bring any"

"Do you think she'd notice if we replaced her water with vodka or something?"

"What?"

"I'm just saying it would slow her down"

"We're not tricking your sister"

"Why?" I put on a fake whine enjoying the moment of camaraderie.

"Well for starts I'm fairly certain it's unethical. Secondly you know full well that she would kill us both"

"True, do you think she'll notice if we just don't keep walking?"

"She might" he says pointing at your sister who is currently pacing back and forth at the top of the hill and snapping pictures of the view with her camera, well my camera but apparently her and Rumple have taken family camping trip to mean, "let's borrow all of Neal's supplies".

"I don't know, she might not, besides my legs are killing me" I groan.

He laughs and pats me on the back, "Your legs?" he asks incredulously, "Son, I have a cane, which by the way overnight a million bugs seem to have laid feast to it, I would love nothing more than to stop walking right now"

I roll my eyes, "I apologise for the cane"

"You owe me a new one"

"I know"

"And a suit" he adds.

I nod, "You could have at least not worn a suit today you know, it might have made things easier"

He snarls in disdain at my own casual clothes, "You expect me to wear what? Shorts?!" the word is uttered with such loathing that I cannot help but laugh.

"They're comfy Dad"

"I highly doubt that"

"Would you even try them?"

He considers it for about half a second, "No, are we really just going to sit here?"

I shrug, "Sure why not?"

"I see, may I ask what hellish activity you have in store for us next?"

"Hey this wouldn't have been hellish had Regina hadn't insisted on racing over the advanced trail" I defend, "I don't know, what would you like to do?"

"Hm" he pauses sitting in silence for a couple of moments, "Can we fish?"

I nod having seen rods for rental at a shack at the campsite, "Sure why not?"

"Excellent, it's a great activity, lots of sitting down"

I laugh, though I'll admit part of me is looking forward to a prolonged sitting down based activity after the brutal torture that has been hiking. "So how long do you think Regina will stay up there before coming back to us?"

He looks down at his watch, "Hm about ten more minutes"

"You didn't use foresight for that did you?"

"No"

I study his face to look for a lie but don't find one, "Okay I bet it will be less than ten"

"More than ten, your sister is a very stubborn woman"

"But she's also easily frustrated, plus you know she's going to want to mock us for giving up halfway through. Want to make this interesting?"

"How so?" he asks curiously.

"If she comes back in less than ten minutes, you can go into her tent tonight and convince her there are no monsters, if she comes back after ten minutes then I will do it again"

"Was it really that bad?"

"Terrible, she's very paranoid, you'd think she'd be less scared by insects and animals"

"They can be a nuisance" he muses before holding out his hand, "You have a deal" he smirks confidently as I shake his.

* * *

Six minutes later I am victorious. Regina barrels her way down to us like a hyped-up annoyed energizer bunny. She stands in front of us barely out of breath staring incredulously as we both continue to sit on the rock faking obliviousness to her huffing form before she finally throws her hands up in the air,

"Are you two just going to sit there?" she asks voice raised.

I look towards my father and we share a grin before nodding.

"What about the hike?"

"It's too hard" I say.

"It's too far" he adds.

"Seriously?" Regina asks incredulously "It's not even that far!" it's really quite funny watching the woman huff, I half expect her to stamp her foot in a minute. Plus the caffeine is causing her gesticulate quite wildly. She leans forward and makes an attempt to force me to get up, "You two are ridiculous! It's literally just over that hill!"

Just over that hill I think, quite frankly it may as well be Everest to my poor aching muscles and my current state of exhaustion, "I can't make it" I say dramatically before throwing myself down onto the rock and sending her toppling down with me. "Neal!" she yells before righting herself with as much dignity as she can manage and brushing herself off. "Fine" she huffs, "Are we at least going to do something else or are we just going to sit around all day?"

* * *

"Regina can you put your phone down for five seconds and pay attention please?" I ask mildly frustrated now, here I am trying to explain the basics of fishing and she can't separate herself from the damn phone to pay attention? Our father seems quite content to sit with an amused smirk on his face as he fishes with ease, apparently twenty eight years of curse life gave him more than enough time to perfect fishing.

Regina on the other hand knows shockingly little about fishing. Seriously it's a good thing she was never a peasant or stranded alone in the woods, there's no way she would have survived. How my father sat through teaching her magic I'll never know, she's a very frustrating student. She's spent most of the past ten minutes complaining about fishing, failing to set up her fishing rod, claiming it utterly impossible before giving up entirely and texting Emma.

I walk over to our father, "Can I ask you something?" he nods tugging lightly on the line. "How do I teach Regina?"

He lowers his rod before looking at me curiously, "Pardon?"

"Well you taught her magic, correct?"

"Yes"

"So how do I teach her things?"

"Well she wanted to learn magic so it wasn't really all that hard" he shrugs.

I sigh, "So how do I teach her something she might not like?"

"You can either be patient, or you get rid of the phone" he says with a slightly mischievous smirk.

I cock a brow before glancing over at my sister who is currently doing the always hilarious 'where the hell did the phone signal just go' dance?

"Thank you" I grin before circling away from Regina and going behind her so she doesn't notice when I lean over and pluck the phone from her hands.

"Give me that back!" she yells leaning up to try and get the phone, luckily she's quite tiny so I can hold it out of reach.

"No. This is meant to be family bonding so no cell phones" I say before locking it away in the car.

"So what am I meant to do now?" she huffs.

I throw her a fishing rod, "You could listen"

She smirks at me before rolling her eyes, "Well played Cassidy."

"So you'll learn?"

"If I must"

I snicker at her great enthusiasm before once again running through the basics of fishing. Eventually a good hour and several mistakes later we're finally both sitting on the rock on either side of our father, admittedly some of the yelling probably did get a little out of hand and pushing each other on to the ground may not have been the greatest demonstration of teacher/student relations but still we're all fishing so we can safely say it worked out quite well. We sit quite peacefully in silence and I can feel the exhaustion creeping over me. I allow the calm to wash over me as the other two contentedly bicker about who can catch more fish and close my eyes hoping to catch up on some sleep.

* * *

I wake to the sound of joint laughter which instantly worries me. I cautiously open my eyes and see Rumple and Regina sitting on the rock clearly trying to stifle giggles. I sit up immediately intrigued, "What?" I ask curious.

"Nothing" Regina smiles at me, failing to stifle a laugh.

"Regina" our father basically stage whispers, "You'll blow our cover"

"Right, sorry" she whispers back.

"You guys do realise I can hear you?"

They both turn to me, twin looks of amusement plastered on their faces, "I hope you weren't eavesdropping Neal" our father says.

"Yes that would be very rude" Regina adds.

"Oh very rude indeed" he agrees.

I roll my eyes, "Oh please do accept my most heartfelt apologies"

They share a bemused look, "I guess we can accept that apology, don't you think Dad?"

He turns to her clearly surprised and I can understand that, she's been very reticent to call him Dad and I can probably count on one hand that amount of times she's actually done so. She frowns clearly confused by the look on his face, completely oblivious to how big a deal this is, "Dad?" she repeats. He suddenly smiles and pulls her into a hug catching her completely off guard before she smiles and relaxes into it. I grin at them both before capturing a quick picture and sending it off to the relevant people. Almost immediately I receive two texts of _Aw _from both Emma and Ruby and smile before Regina parrots, "No cell phones" at me. "Shut up sissy" I say with a small laugh before receiving a very interesting text from Ruby, _So did you get that stuff off your face yet?_

I turn to them both before showing them the text, "Please explain" at which they both burst into laughter. I frown before shutting the phone down and using the screen to check my reflection. "What did you guys do?!" I shout catching sight of my face covered in various coloured ink doodles.

"You fell asleep" Rumple says as if that is an explanation.

"So?"

"Well Henry told me that it's customary on these kinds of excursions to prank a person if they fall asleep first"

"So you drew on my face?"

"Well I wouldn't put it as simply as that son"

"No, some of that is high quality art work" Regina adds seriously.

"You drew rainbow fish on my face! How is that artwork?"

* * *

I can hear the cackling as the sun begins to set and I am still trying to rub these damn ink off of my face. I'm beginning to wonder if they used permanent marker. My face falls at that thought, what if they did? Would they do that? I peer down at my reflection in the water and see that the ink is at least beginning to smudge so now instead of brightly coloured stars, fish and whatever else they say fit to doodle on my face there's just smudgy smears of colours.

I stand slowly and turn to the still giggling pair on the rocks, luckily they haven't noticed me stand giving me ample opportunity to creep up behind them and push the pair of them into the water. I laugh at the sound of the splash and quickly catch their soaked glares on my camera as they both shoot me looks of utter un-amusement.

"Neal" Regina fumes as she stalks out of the water, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Well Gigi, I believe it's called payback" I smirk.

"Be warned, that I will have my revenge" she scowls before storming off in the direction of the campsite.

I laugh but am quickly silenced as my father suddenly appears beside me, "You may think that was clever but vengeance is coming" he warns.

I gulp wondering what exactly I've set myself up for.

* * *

Night has fallen and with much persuading Regina is in her own tent, admittedly our father did have to go in the tent with her so that he could as Regina put it "fight off the bears and deer who might otherwise attempt to eat me" I chuckle, well at least I'll get some sleep. I roll over in my sleeping bag before hearing the rather loud sound of a twig snapping. I freeze, before slowly sitting upright. I sit still for a few moments before shaking my head. I must be getting paranoid I think. That is before another loud rustling noise, this time coming from right on top of tent. Okay I'm definitely not imagining that. I grab my torch quickly turning it on but whatever it was quickly disappears as the light comes on. I frown before turning the light off before I hear soft thwack at the side of the tent followed by more rustling. I quickly turn the torch on again before the shadow flicks away again.

Okay, I think, what could it be? It's probably just a bird or a large big right? Right? I frown, what if it isn't? I peer cautiously around my tent for any other sign of what it is before I hear the rustling again, I turn in the tent wildly twisting to find the source but all that gets me is dizzy and trapped in my sleeping bag. I stand awkwardly before the rustling sound comes from right over my head. I feel a tickly feeling right over the top of my head and at that I jump and let out a squeal … I mean a manly noise that was not in any way a squeal. Okay, I take a few moments to compose myself before I recognise another noise: the annoying distinct sound of laughter. I step outside of the tent sleeping bag still twisted in odd angles around my legs still wielding the torch, I attempt to control my voice irked when it comes out shaky, "That was not funny" I say illuminating the laughing pair outside my tent.

"It was a little funny" Regina smirks scrunching her face up the torch beam lands on her.

"Mean" I reply.

"We did warn you" our father adds still cackling a little.

"That didn't mean I thought you would come up and start making me think there were mutant insects crawling over my tent!"

"Mutant insects?!" Regina laughs hysterically at this comment.

"There could have been" I mutter.

"Now, now son" Rumple says placing his arm around my shoulders, "Surely a small dose of vengeance is all part of family bonding is it not?"

I frown before begrudgingly nodding, "Fine, congratulations on your revenge. Can we call a truce now? I'd like to be able to sleep before we pack all this up tomorrow?"

"Truce" they both say holding out their hands. I smile bemusedly before shaking both hands simultaneously.

"Okay, good night" I say heading back into my own tent but turning to make sure they both head into Regina's tent.

* * *

Thank god for coffee. After the trick played by the merry pranksters in the backseat of my truck I found myself completely unable to sleep. Admittedly I think the only one of us who slept well was Dad, I laugh handing Regina a travel mug of coffee, "Did he snore last night too?" I ask with a smug smile.

"Like a wild boar" she mutters before clambering into the passenger seat and retrieving her beloved phone.

I put the car into drive and find myself both desperate to return to civilisation and reluctant to leave here, this trip turned out to be surprisingly fun, I think, even if I do still have ink all over my face. This morning, mind you, it's not too bad, that is if you're the kind of person who doesn't mind having an Elmer the Elephant style makeover. I frown at my appearance in the car's mirror before smiling at my father who is sitting in the backseat regaling us with tales of how much he will enjoy the return to civilised life.

We pull up outside of the pawn shop and he hugs us both goodbye before retrieving his small luggage from the trunk. "I'll send you a bill for the suits and the cane" he remarks with a parting wave. "I'll look forward to that" I reply, I won't, I've seen the labels in the backs of some of those suits and I'm betting is taste in canes is fairly upmarket as well.

At the mansion the greeting is far different and takes a lot longer as Henry barrels into both Regina and myself demanding tales of our great adventure into the woods, which Regina agrees to after a long shower. "Well Neal, that was certainly" she pauses before settling on "Interesting".

I laugh, "You had fun"

"Maybe a little bit, I'll admit your expression last night was hilarious"

"Glad I could entertain" I reply.

"Thank you Neal" she says sincerely, well I think so, before waving and practically running inside and I imagine into what will be the world's longest shower so as to rid herself of the dirt of the camp experience.

I steer my car through town eagerly looking forward to sleeping on a mattress again. If there's one thing I've learned about camping it's that whilst it's great for forcing your family to interact with other, because let's face it in the woods there is no escape, it's hell on the back and legs and arms, hell there's a good chance I'm going to indoors and just collapse. I leave the camping stuff in the car telling myself I'll deal with it tomorrow and throw myself onto the bed. My phone buzzes with a text from Ruby.

_Hey Neal, you back yet? _

Yeah just got in. miss me?

_Definitely, get the ink off your face yet?_

Most of it 

_:D_

Not funny

_A little bit. How was trip? _

I pause, how was the trip? Like how I have often imagined family trips being it was that perfect combination of fun moments and utter hell. But hey, in terms of family bonding I can call it a success, I think. It was interesting I reply.

_Well hopefully our trip will be more fun ;)_

At that I grin, I hope so, need to get some sleep, love you, talk to you later I reply before throwing the phone onto the bedside table so I can get some much needed rest.

_AN 2: Okay I would like to take the time here to point out that I have never been (and hopefully will never go) camping in my life. Personally I imagine it would be hellish and knowing my family there is no way we would all come out of it alive! Hope you liked the chapter, thanks for reading :)_


	16. The Booth

_AN: I am so sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up. I work at a personal tuition company and because the GCSEs were last week I ended up doing loads of extra hours so wasn't able to get this written. I don't own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Hope you like this chapter :)_

Today is Wednesday which is my assigned coffee date day with Regina. It didn't take long for me to realise that she is an insanely hyper-organised person and given the amount of relatives she has who wish to make up for lost time she decided to make a schedule: her mother on Mondays, dad on Tuesdays, me on Wednesdays, therapy on a Thursday and then Emma on a Friday. I don't know how she does it, don't get me wrong I love my family but juggling that many appointment a week would probably drive me crazy.

So far though this system has been working except for one thing that I've noticed, we always sit in exactly the same booth. At first I thought nothing of it, thinking it to be merely a coincidence but it's been sixteen weeks and sixteen weeks running we have sat in the far corner booth. I know it may not seem like a big deal but would it hurt to shake things up a bit?

This morning I have decided to go for it, I made sure to get here early, at a time when I know Regina is currently in a meeting and sit myself down at the counter. Ruby immediately comes over with a smile, "Neal" she says before checking her grandmother isn't watching and leaning over the counter to kiss me, "You're here early" she adds after looking at the clock behind her.

I nod, "Yeah, I need to test something"

"Test something?" she asks clearly confused.

I smile at her, "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about"

"Okay" she says but I can tell she's watching me now.

"When the test is done I'll fill you in" I sigh giving in. Besides if this test fails I may need her help.

My train of thought is interrupted by the jangling of the bell over the diner door, I look at my watch. Showtime. My sister walks in and blinks in surprise at seeing me here so early, having become used to my not so great punctuality. She waves at me as she enters before frowning at where I'm sitting and walking right past the counter and towards the booth. I frown. The test failed. I walk over to the table, "What was wrong with the counter?" I ask and she frowns nervously.

"This booth was free" and I realise there the flaw in my test. Yep, I'll definitely need Ruby's help next week. I let the booth thing go for the rest of the coffee date. I know it doesn't seem like that important but I can't help but feel concerned.

* * *

After our coffee is done and she excuses herself as she has another meeting to get to I leave so I can talk to Cora, Dad and Emma. They all confirm that whenever they meet Regina they too have to sit in the same booth every week. Emma tells me that Regina calls it 'her' booth and frowns. I have a feeling she shares my concerns and so quickly fill her in on why I'm worried. She nods, "She's used to having things a certain way Neal"

"I know that but would it hurt to shake things up just a little bit?"

At that she laughs, "You do realise you're talking about Regina? I love her but she's not exactly one for shaking things up"

"I guess that's what twenty-eight years frozen in time will do to you" I reply bitterly.

Emma sighs, "Yeah, she's used to her routine and her way of doing things Neal. She won't respond well if you try and change it"

I rub my face in my hands, "I know that but Storybrooke is different now, things are changing and I imagine they will continue do so and she needs to learn how to deal with that."

"She can deal with change" Emma mutters defensively.

"How did she react when you first came to town and things began to change?" it's a low blow but I need her to see my point.

She sighs and frowns, "She tried to force me to leave, argued with me, fought with me before trying to curse me. But you know she got used to me being around eventually"

"After over a year Em. She needs to be able to adapt to change quicker than that"

"And you want to start with the table thing?" she asks clearly cautious about upsetting Regina but registering that this particular issue is one that Regina needs to work on.

"It's a good place to start, it's certainly a part of her routine that can and probably will be disrupted by someone or something and it's not a hard thing to teach her to adapt to, it just means she has to get used to sitting somewhere else if where she wants to sit is unavailable"

She frowns thinking it over, "Thus teaching her to figure out another solution if she can't have what she wants"

I nod, "Exactly"

She sighs again, "I guess it's worth a shot"

* * *

Wednesday rolls around again and since I have filled Ruby in she makes sure that there are people sitting in the booth. Unfortunately I am running a little bit late, shit, I think as I practically run into the diner at which Ruby shoots me a quick annoyed glare and gestures to where Regina is trying to force the people in the booth to leave. Shit. The plan is not going well.

"You're late" Ruby hisses at me.

"I got held up, how bad is it?"

"Well when she came in, she informed them that it was her booth at which they did nothing and continued to eat, then she asked them if they could move to which they said no and so for the past five minutes she has been switching between glaring at them and trying to make them leave"

"Did you try getting her to sit down elsewhere?"

She gives me her 'duh' expression, "Yes, and as you can tell it went brilliantly" she adds sarcastically.

"Sorry Rubes" I say a little sheepishly, "I'm guessing she reacted badly?"

"She outright refused to sit anywhere that wasn't "her" booth"

"Okay" I sigh knowing that now is the time to step in. I approach carefully and walk up beside Regina. "Hello Regina"

"Neal, these people are in my seat"

"So?"

"It's my booth"

"Actually it isn't"

She gives me her death glare, "Yes it is, I always sit there. It's my booth" the last three words are gritted out and directed to the people currently seated at the table. I can see one of them gulp, "Perhaps we should go" the man begins causing Regina to smile at having gotten her own way before I cut him off, "No, you can stay. You were there first" I say as my sister turns and glares at me, clearly frustrated.

"Neal" she hisses, "I could have had my booth"

I frown before grabbing her arm gently and steering her away from the booth with an apologetic glance at the people at the table. They nod at me whilst Regina struggles to break free from my grasp so she can continue her attempt to scare them into leaving. In the end I simply pull her outside. "What the hell are you doing? This is highly inappropriate" she warns me as we exit the diner.

"Inappropriate? Regina, you were glaring at those people for sitting at a table"

"It's my table!" she hisses and actually stamps her foot which would be adorable were she not looking quite so annoyed and anxious.

"Regina" I say making sure to keep my voice calm, "It's just a table"

Her voice goes quiet, "It's my table. It's where I always sit" she insists and begins to turn away from me as if to enter the diner again. I catch her and wrap my arms around her front.

"Regina, you'll have to sit somewhere else"

She struggles against me, "No" she insists her tone blunt yet desperate.

"Regina" I say again turning her to face me, "Yes"

She shakes her head, "But it's my table"

"Well somebody else is sitting there so you can't Regina."

"But I always sit there" she argues.

"Regina" I say firmly before lowering my arms to hold onto her hands, "You can't always sit there. You can't expect to always sit there. Things change. Other people might be there and you can't just force them out because it's what you want. You need to think about what others want and if they want to sit there then you have to let them."

It's at these words that she realises the lesson I'm trying to teach her here, one her mother should have taught her instead of teaching her to just take what she wants and expect others to do as she pleases. "Why?" she asks.

"Because you have to know how to adapt. You can't always have thing your way. Things change. You can't control no matter what. And you know your mom or your dad should have taught you this but they didn't and that's why I'm doing it now. It's what big brothers do, they set the example and show their pain in the ass sisters how to behave" she smiles a little at my last sentence before she sighs.

"My mother always taught me that I was destined to be a queen and that queens get what they want and if people refuse them that they take what they want regardless. I had twenty-eight years of people giving me what I want Neal" her voice is laced with bitterness and pain.

"I know but you're not in that situation anymore. You're not an evil queen. You're Regina and you have to learn to behave like everyone else does which means sometimes you have to compromise"

She frowns before sighing, "Like sitting somewhere else?"

"Like sitting somewhere else"

She offers me a small smile, "I'm not good at giving into what other people want. I've only ever really done it for one person: Henry. Emma fought me a lot but I still ended up getting what I wanted the majority of the time" she pauses for breath, "But I guess I can try"

I smile at her and let go of her hands before placing an encouraging hand on her shoulder, "Coffee?" I ask.

She offers a tentative nod and I can tell she's mildly anxious about going back inside but she schools her face into indifference as she walks back into the Diner, clearly determined to regain her dignity after being ushered out by myself. I follow her in and stand beside her as she stands next to the doorway scanning the diner's seating options. I smile at her before pointing in the direction of the empty counter, "Over there G-bug"

"I thought I warned you about the bug thing"

"You did but I like it"

"I'm not a bug" she says defiantly seating herself on a stool, "And my name begins with R not G"

"Would you prefer to be an R-bear?"

She sighs rolling her eyes, "Absolutely not"

I can see she's still somewhat tense about sitting up here and not at her usual booth but luckily Ruby comes over quickly with our coffees. I notice Regina occasionally looking over to the table and she turns to me when the people there exit the diner, an expectant look in her eyes. I hate to crush that but I know that follow-through is just as important here as getting her to sit at the counter. I shake my head at her, "We're staying over here Regina"

"But it's empty"

"And we're already seated so we don't need to move"

She sighs and stares down into her coffee and I know I need to distract her to stop her from trying to get to that booth. "Do you know how to build a volcano?" I ask.

She looks up at me, "A volcano?"

"Yeah Henry said he wants to make one for his school science fair and he seems to think I know how to do that"

At that she smiles, "He asked Emma but she didn't know so she told him to ask his Dad"

"So Emma dropped me in it?"

She grins, a grin I've noticed comes on her face whenever she talks about Henry or Emma, "She did indeed"

"She does know I don't have any idea how to build one?"

She shrugs, "Maybe"

I roll my eyes, "So will you help me?"

She considers it for a moment, "I can try, I've never made one either but new things right?" she asks with a hint of apprehension in her tone.

I nod at her before raising my coffee cup in a toast, "New things"

_AN 2: This chapter was originally going to be about something else but then I was thinking about 2x17 where Regina is quite insistent about 'her' seat and I thought that it would be something Neal might try and fix. I don't know when I'll next update this. It will hopefully be during the week. Hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought :)_


	17. Of Birthdays and Stealth Missions

_AN: Sorry this took so long to get up, for numerous reasons this just took me ages to write and get uploaded. I don't own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Hope you enjoy this chapter :)_

I wake with a disgruntled sigh as Ruby slides in next to me, as much as I love her she is not exactly quiet when she slips in from her wolf runs. I open my eyes to see her pretty much zonked out beside me, I smile at how adorably exhausted she is before placing a kiss on her forehead and covering her with one of our blankets. She and I are now very unofficially living together, she still has some stuff at Granny's but she's pretty much always here. Part of me found it strange that that didn't actually terrify me but it seems in Storybrooke I have actually found a want to settle down. I have a home here, an awesome girlfriend, a son and a family.

My thoughts are interrupted by a phone call from my sister, I quickly answer the phone and walk into the kitchen so as not to disturb Ruby.

"Hey there Jigglypuff, what's going on?" I smile picturing the eye roll I'm sure that nickname garnered.

"Jigglypuff?! That doesn't even make sense."

"It does, you are a Gina or Gi and that sound can slide into Jigglypuff" Henry picked this nickname, his reasoning I feel is solid.

"That aside, I am most certainly not a Jigglypuff" I hear her huff on the other line.

"What's wrong with being a Jigglypuff?"

"They're small, cute and fluffy. I'd much rather be a Growlithe or a Pikachu"

I laugh, "In all fairness Regina you are quite small and with Emma cute and fluffy"

"Remind me to fireball you later for that comment Cassidy."

Like that will happen, "Sure, what did you want to talk about anyway?"

"Dad. According to my mother it's his birthday soon"

I run through my mental calendar quickly, "Yep, in two weeks"

"Right, so I was thinking we should plan something"

"Like a party?" I have a feeling this will involve a lot of meetings and work, such is the Regina Mills style of executing a plan.

"Precisely, a party. I was hoping we could discuss the matter during the week?"

"Sure" I reply before double checking what shifts I'm doing at the station, "I can do Tuesday morning?"

"Perfect, be at my office at ten sharp"

"Will do. Bye Gina"

"Goodbye Neal. Don't be late" and with one final warning she hangs up. I place my phone down and wonder what exactly she has in mind for this party. What do you do to celebrate the birthday of Rumplestiltskin? Hell, what do you buy him as a gift? I pause for a moment and try to calculate just how old my father is. Wow, that's going to have to be one big cake.

* * *

I actually manage to be early to Regina's office and come bearing coffee, free – one of the perks of dating a waitress, hoping that the hot drink will be seen as a kind gesture and thus less work will fall upon my head. Unfortunately she sees through my ruse straight away though that doesn't stop her from taking the beverage.

"Glad you could make it Neal"

"But of course, why wouldn't I want to help plan my Dad's 465th birthday party?"

At that she scrunches her face up in confusion before doing the mental math and gasping in surprise, "He's that old?!"

"Well not in this world, but you know if we count FTL then yeah"

She looks flabbergasted, I'm not surprised, to me his age isn't all that weird given that I technically am about 425, damn I look good for my age, I smirk cockily to myself as my sister shakes her head, "I think we should just stick to this land age"

"Oh well in that case I don't actually know how old he is"

"Neither do I"

"What? How can you not know? Didn't you have files on everyone during the curse or something?"

"Not on everyone, plus he's very secretive, I knew very little"

"So how many candles are we putting on the cake? I don't think 465 will fit"

She smiles at that, "No probably not, we'll have to find out that information"

I frown, "How do we do that? I somehow doubt he'll just let it slip"

She grins proudly, "We use our secret weapon at information gathering, Henry"

"Henry"

"He's excellent at operations, a genius of stealth, he'll be able to get us the information"

I smile as she makes Henry out to be some sort of super spy, though I will admit he is pretty good at weaselling out people's secret so maybe he can crack this mystery.

"Alright, so we've recruited Henry to solve the age problem. What's next?"

"Well I wasn't sure what sort of party you wanted to throw or what kind he would like but I was thinking we could just have a nice dinner in a restaurant that isn't Granny's"

"Sounds good, I don't really see Dad as the disco-rave or Rabbit Hole kind of guy so a fancypants restaurant will do"

She laughs at the image of our father at a rave before nodding, "Okay I shall scout out a location then, you can be charge of the guest list and letting the guests know"

"Okay, who should be on the guest list?"

She rolls her eyes, "I'm sure you can figure that out Neal"

"Well, Dad, me, you, Henry, Belle, our girlfriends?" she nods, "Anyone else?"

She frowns, "I don't think so, I somehow doubt that my mother or Belle's father would join us but you could ask them"

"Sure why not? How do we get Dad there without spilling the beans?"

"I'll think of something" she smirks clearly having a plan in mind.

I nod, fortunately all I have to do is invite people, that's not too hard. It's then I remember our other problem. "What are you getting him as a gift?"

* * *

Apparently neither one of us had any idea what to buy him, in all fairness though the man can literally poof up anything he needs or wants. So now here we are standing around the corner from our father's shop waiting for him to leave.

"Remind me again why we can't just go in and ask him?" I whisper since apparently talking normally is not part of whatever stealth mission I've stumbled into here.

"It's not a surprise if we ask him" she hisses back.

I roll my eyes and move to stand since being crouched around a corner is not exactly the most comfortable position to be in for any length in time. As I do so Regina glares at me "Neal! Get down!" she hisses before pushing me back down with her hand.

"Geez Gina, do you have any idea how uncomfortable this is?"

"If you're standing up he might see you!" she warns under her breath.

"I'm not sure it will matter all that much"

She rolls her eyes, "Have you never broken into a place before? We can't be spotted" she whispers. I stifle a small laugh before sitting on the floor as she furtively peers around the corner, "He's still in there"

"It is his shop"

"He should be leaving for lunch in ten minutes" she says checking her watch.

"What did you memorise his schedule or something?" I ask confused.

She smiles sheepishly, "Back in the days of the curse I used to break into his shop when I needed leverage or something" she frowns thinking back over their past which was riddled with games and suspicion. I draw her in for a one arm hug, "Well at least this isn't for leverage it's to do something nice even if we are skulking in an alley" she smiles at me, "Thanks."

At that we keep watch on the shop until we spot our father locking up the shop and walking off. Thank god, my ass is beginning to freeze from sitting on the cold ground, I move to stand again stretching my muscles as I do so to get rid of the stiffness. "Can we go in there now?" she nods and after double-checking that our position was not compromised we creep over to the store. I blink surprised as she pulls out a set of skeleton keys and opens the door to the store.

"You have a key?"

She nods, "I have keys to everywhere in town"

"Really? Even my house?" she laughs at my horrified face, "I don't really use them anymore Neal"

I let out a sigh of relief, "So what exactly is the plan here?"

"We look for clues of things to get him based on stuff he already has"

"But most of this crap belongs to other people doesn't it?"

"Not in the back. That's all stuff he doesn't want to sell so it should give us ideas of what he likes"

"Remind me when my birthday comes just to give you a list"

* * *

Shockingly our stealth mission failed to provide ideas, I'm fairly certain Regina wanted to go searching through his house as well before I reminded her that even though her girlfriend is the Sheriff I'm sure she'd still arrest us for breaking and entering. So after about thirty minutes of convincing Regina as to why breaking into our father's house to go information gathering is a bad idea we went our separate ways.

I wander into the diner with a desperate need for coffee, I love my sister and all but she can be hard work at times. Ruby sees my approach and places a steaming mug in front of me, "God I love you" I mumble half to her and half to the mug. She chuckles, "Love you too, how was the meeting?"

"It was more like a harrowing ninja mission" she laughs again. "Ninja?"

"I was roped into a criminal activity in the means of gathering information"

She mock gasps, "But you're Deputy Sheriff, shame Neal" I smile back at her, "I know, I'll have to arrest myself"

She winks at me before lowering her voice to a suggestive purr, "Or I could arrest you"

I grin at her before reminding myself of her crossbow wielding grandmother lurking nearby, "Well you did use to be deputy" I say as her face falls into one of confusion. I quickly gesture behind her and she sees the reason for the change of tone to our conversation. She rolls her eyes at me, "Granny still makes you uncomfortable huh?"

"She's a little scary"

"Your sister is a magical mayor/sorceress and your father is the most powerful man in all the realms and you find my grandmother scary?"

"She has a crossbow Ruby. A crossbow"

"And I'm not afraid to sue it" Granny cuts in, "Now get on back to work girl, we do have other customers" she rolls her eyes at her grandmother before waving goodbye to me.

"You're paying for that coffee Mr Cassidy"

I nod and pull out a few bills, "So Granny how do you feel about my father?"

She blinks in confusion, "Excuse me?"

"Oh I'm in charge of the guest list for my father's birthday dinner so I figured I'd ask, you are sort of family"

"So you are that serious about my Ruby then? This isn't just some casual fling?"

"I am super duper deadly serious. So you wanna come?" I internally smack myself in the head for the casual tone, I'm guessing Regina was thinking more fancy invitations than me randomly asking people to this shindig but hey if it gets people there. I see Granny thinking it over having got her answer about the nature of my relationship with her granddaughter, one I hope she's happy with, my intention is not to fool around with her, I actually want something serious. "I shall come" she says before turning to me with a smile, "I shall be telling your sister how you invited me though, I'm sure she'll be very impressed" damn, I may have forgotten about her protective relationship with my sister. I have a feeling that I might be hearing about this later.

* * *

Well I was right I think as Regina begins her tirade over the phone about what is and is not the proper way to invite a person to a fancy dinner, when she finally runs out of steam I ask if she managed to get everything else sorted, apparently Henry has been recruited to find out the answer to the age question and a restaurant has been booked, now all that's left is for me to invite everyone else with invitations, she made sure to place extra emphasis on the invitations part, and for her to come to up with a way of getting Dad there without revealing what we're doing. Oh and we still need to figure out a gift. So all in all not much left to do. Luckily we have 9 days to do it all in. Plenty of time.


	18. Our Father's Birthday

_AN: Apologies for the wait, life has been lifey but luckily I was able to get all of my multi-chapter fics written up today. I don't own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Hope you like it :)_

After my minor gaffe with the invitations Regina pretty much hounded me every day about the damn things. Luckily today is the day of the meal and so I won't get my four daily phone calls asking me if I have sent out proper invitations or done this, that and the other. It's amazing just how many tasks the woman thinks I can do at once. Admittedly my joke handmade invitations didn't exactly go over well and so I was forced to fork out for the fanciest damn invitations I've ever seen in my life. I'm fairly certain I have had dinners that cost less than these cards did.

My boss though was thoroughly unsympathetic, though she somehow seems to have been spared any jobs aside from 'Don't turn up in your leather jacket' she spent most of the week worrying about the dinner and whether or not my father would curse her. I would have reassured her but I had to look through folders of envelope designs which is about as thrilling as it sounds. My question to Emma of "Do I go for cream or egg white?" did not give me an answer as to what my sister would prefer but instead laughter and ridicule. It's been a fun week. Emma thought I was being far too serious about invitations but clearly she has never been simultaneously threatened with fireballs and a crossbow for not taking it seriously enough.

After the invitations fiasco came the gift. Apparently upon learning of our stealth mission Emma did thoroughly chastise Regina until the message went across thus no more breaking and entering for gift buying. I can't pretend I was upset about this, I thought being a car thief was dangerous but it had nothing on partaking in one of my sister's schemes. Four trips to the "shopping district" of Storybrooke resulted in disappointment, shockingly in the three shops that this town has we didn't find anything that we could give our father as a gift. Eventually we gave in and I introduced my sister to Amazon.

"_I thought the Amazon was a jungle and river?" my sister asks confusedly scrunching up her nose. I do my best to stifle a laugh but fail. I stop upon seeing her annoyed/upset pouty face, "There's no need to laugh" _

_I smile at her before going across and pulling into a squeezy hug "Don't worry about it Regina, I shall guide you through the murky river of internet shopping" at this she rolls her eyes and wriggles her way out of the hug. _

"_So what is it exactly?"_

"_It's like a shop but online. You order it from here and they deliver it to your house"_

_At this she frowns, "You don't see the problem in this Amazon plan?" _

_I frown confusedly, "What problem?"_

"_How are they going to find our houses? The town is invisible" _

_Oh crap. I might have forgotten about that, "Surely you must get deliveries?" _

_She shakes her head, "No. We get post but we have a post office and the grocery and other stores are stocked magically" _

"_So we're essentially living off the grid?"_

_She frowns, "Not really"_

"_Well we are, we aren't monitored by the government nor can the government find us"_

_She shrugs, "I guess, does this mean we can't go on the amazon?" _

_I laugh again, "Just Amazon Gina" _

That plan ended up a total bust since no external company can actually deliver to this town. Well I guess that is the downfall of living in a bubble. Well at least I learned how this town managed to function for the past twenty odd years. It did take a few more brainstorming sessions before Regina and I came up with a joint gift. Hopefully he'll like it, it wasn't very expensive but I don't think he'll mind. It's the thought that counts, right?

Our other big problem was the age thing, fortunately Henry is better at stealth operations that his parents. We're lucky he came through, I'm about 80% sure Regina was planning on hacking into his personal files to find out. From what I've heard from Emma she has had to be reminded about the law on several occasions especially in regards to not attempting to steal our father's driving license for clues.

Somehow though I did still end up incognito in an alleyway while we waited for Henry to emerge. Why we couldn't just wait outside the shop under the guise of picking him up, I don't know, according to my sister that was not stealth mission enough. I'm beginning to think I should carry around some sort of fold out chair for these lunch meetings with Regina since most of them end with us skulking around the town.

Thanks to Henry's ability at subtle questioning we eventually learned that Rumple in this land at least is 52 which means that by this land's standard he actually had Regina and I at a fairly young age. But hey, at least we can fit 52 candles on a cake.

* * *

Ruby and I are the first to arrive at Storybrooke's finest restaurant and by that I mean the only place to get food that isn't the diner or the grocery store. Ruby fidgets nervously by the store, "You okay?" I ask grabbing her hand.

"Just mildly nervous, you know your father and Granny, I don't think this is going to go well"

"I'm sure it will be fine Rubes"

"If you say so" she mumbles.

"Hey" I say before kissing her "Everything will be fine, I doubt anyone will start flinging curses or shooting crossbows at a family dinner"

"You hope" she replies smiling a little.

I check my watch and frown seeing that everyone else is late, I know Emma, Regina and Henry have gone to pick up Rumple, apparently their master plan is simply to ambush him in the shop and tell him to come for a drive. I'm sure he won't ask any questions about where they're going. I suppose a simple plan could work.

The restaurant doors swing open and Cora and Granny walk in both giggling. I'm thinking that they have had some sort of pre-party at the diner looking at how they're stumbling around the restaurant and laughing at the chandelier style lights. "Should we help them?" I ask Ruby who is sitting there with a stunned expression at seeing her grandmother in such a condition. I move to get up and help the two ladies to their chairs at which they both grab onto my arms yelling "Tackle him!" oh no I think as I am thrown to the ground by the pair of them. "Ow" I mumble weakly, at least I didn't hit a table and luckily there aren't many people to have witnessed this event. It's as I gingerly get up to the sound of drunken laughter that I see Ruby has helpfully recorded the whole thing.

"Thanks Ruby" I call as I carefully grab Cora and escort her to the table.

"Gotta get entertainment somehow" she replies with a smirk as her nerves have seemingly been stopped by my impromptu trip to the ground, Hook will be jealous I think with a grin. She pockets her phone before finally moving to help her grandmother to her place at the table. Out of the corner of my eye I see Cora reaching for the table wine, oh no, I think, I don't think she needs any more wine. I quickly move the wine out of her reach, an action which earns me an utterly terrifying glare. With a minor look of panic I hail the waiter and ask for water hoping we can sober these two up before everyone else gets here.

Belle arrives a few moments later with Snow and Charming. Snow glances around the table with a confused expression, "Where's everyone else?"

I shrug, I have begun to wonder that myself, they should really have been here by now.

* * *

We get to the shop, luckily I was able to convince Emma to wear something other than her damn leather jacket. She did try and plead with me but there will be no red leather at this dinner table. Eventually I get her to agree and she dons a pair of jeans and a jumper before asking me if that will do. I nod with a smirk before slipping on my dress. "Mm nice" Emma says before hugging me from behind. "Don't start" I say knowing what she's after and that we don't have time for it right now, maybe later.

Twenty minutes later we pull up outside of my father's shop in the bug. Irksomely my Benz is currently in the shop and so we have to voyage in her yellow death trap. My father raises a brow upon seeing the car, "You want me to take a drive with you in that?"

I smile, "It will be fun"

"I thought you hated this car"

"Hate is a strong word, it's not that bad a vehicle" I reply hoping he just gets in the car.

"Where are we going?"

"Just around"

"Just around?" he repeats clearly sceptical.

"It will be fun Dad. Humour me" I say gesturing to the car. He sighs and gets in the front at which I frown and glare. I spot Emma grinning and trying her best to stifle a laugh at my pouty face. After a few moments Henry pushes open the back door, "In you get Mom" I frown one more time at my father and slide into the backseat of the infernal car.

ooo

We should have taken a cab, I think, as the bug grinds to a halt at the roadside, nowhere near the restaurant. "Em? Why are we stopping?" I ask concerned.

"I think the engine stopped" she replies chewing on her bottom lip.

"Are you sure?"

"Quite the fun drive" my father mutters snarkily from the front seat. "I'm sure Em will figure it out" I say to placate him before checking my watch. We really should be at the restaurant by now. Hopefully Neal is already there and managed to get the table. My head snaps up at hearing the tell-tale sound of thunder, both Henry and I flinch neither of us particularly fans of stormy weather. Emma pokes her head in the car, "Bad news"

ooo

Michael picked up the Bug but since he had the twins with him couldn't give us a lift leaving the four of us stranded in the rain. I flinch again at another peal of thunder and snuggle closer to Emma and so does Henry.

"Well I guess we're walking then" Emma mutters.

"Walking where?" my father asks frowning as the rain continues to drop onto his suit.

"It's a surprise" I reply with a small smile before a flash of lightning causes me to jump out of my shoes and stumble into Emma.

"Gina!" she cries just about catching me, "Be careful"

I nod before stepping back into my heels and grimacing at the walk ahead.

* * *

The door to the restaurant finally opens revealing some very soaked bedraggled four people. The whole table erupts into laughter at the sight of them. My father smiles a little at the sight of everyone gathered for his birthday but he still looks mildly like a drowned rat. Emma is practically carrying Henry and dragging a limping one-shoed Regina who is clinging to Emma's side like it's a life raft.

"Hey everyone" Emma pants clearly tired before slumping into her chair and dumping Regina and Henry either side of her.

We hear a slight rumble of thunder and I notice both Regina and Henry gravitating closer to Emma as it rings through. I smile upon seeing them all huddled up and quickly snap a picture of the three of them. At the sound of the camera click all three scowl at me clearly unimpressed at being photographed in a state of dishevelment.

ooo

After the dramatic entrance of the main guest we did manage to have a reasonably nice meal with only mild threats from drunken grandmothers, including Snow White who told Regina she could gather an army of birds to attack her.

By the end of the meal we are hastily handing out water to Snow, Cora and Granny hoping to quell the alcohol in their systems. Our father has actually smiled through most of the dinner. Cards are eventually passed down the table to him and he graciously accepts all of them. "Speech!" a drunken Cora shouts at which Rumple gives a horrified look before we all join in.

He begrudgingly stands, "Okay, well thank you all for coming tonight and thank you for the cards. Thank you to my children, Regina and Neal for putting this party together, I love you both so very much and it means a lot to me that you did this so thank you for making this the best birthday I've had in a long time, though Regina I do hope you have a more reliable method of getting us all home. Thank you all for coming" he finishes his brief but still touching speech by raising his glass. At that we all raise our glasses before wishing him a "Happy Birthday!"

The cake comes out with 52 candles on it. Regina had suggested just getting 5 and 2 number candles but I managed to win that one. They just about all fit on the cake. Rumple gives a bemused smirk at the cake and swarm of fire on top of it before summoning a breath and blowing out some of the candles. In the end it takes him, Belle and myself to get all of these candles out. It's a damn fine cake though.

ooo

As everyone else chats Regina moves herself away from her position which had been half on her own chair and half on Emma and I do the same so we can corner our Dad as he re-enters the room. He smiles upon seeing us standing there, "Do I dare ask? Are you forcing me into another death-trap car so I can walk through the rain?" he jokes.

We both smile at him before handing him our present. "A gift?" he asks surprised. We nod and wait for him to open it. He grins upon opening it, in the end we brought one of those multi-photo picture frames and put in several photos, the one from Regina's impromptu birthday party, one of he and I, one of him and Regina and then a few from our camping trip. Annoyingly Regina slipped in one where I still had rainbow fish on my face.

We both watch as he carefully lies the frame down before hugging us both. We mile and hug him back, "I love it and I love you two. Thank you" he says before kissing Regina's cheek and turning to get mine as well. "I have the best kids" he mumbles more to himself than us. I smile about to make a cocky remark when a burst of thunder sends Regina practically flying into our father's arms. We both laugh and create a hug shield. "Happy Birthday Dad" I say as Regina mumbles the same. I smile, despite the mild disasters the party was a success.

_Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought :)_


	19. Peanut or Chocolate?

_AN: I know it's been a while since I updated this, for some reason or other it just took me ages to get round to it. If anyone has any things they'd like to see in this please let me know. I don't own Once or its characters. Apologies for any mistakes. Hope you like it :)_

"Get the chocolate ones"

"The chocolate ones? Ew. No, it's got to be the peanut ones"

She wrinkles her nose, "Definitely not, they're the worst ones"

I gasp horrified, "How can you say that?"

"It's just chocolate over a peanut. It's horrible"

"Try delicious. What's so great about the chocolate ones?!"

"They taste the nicest"

"They're just plain chocolate"

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's very boring"

"Chocolate is nicer than peanuts" she says gesturing to the yellow bag in my hand before picking up the brown packet. "Plus those are ridiculous"

I frown confusedly at that, "Okay, how are they ridiculous?"

"If you want to eat peanuts why not just eat peanuts?"

"They taste better covered in chocolate" I reply before realising I've fallen right into her logic trap.

"So you admit that things are better in chocolate?" she asks sweetly, clearly thinking she has victory here but on this battle I never back down.

I laugh slightly at her attempt to trick me, "Yeah, peanuts are better in chocolate"

"But think how much better the chocolate will be without the peanuts"

I shake my head, "No sounds terrible"

From the corner of my eye I can see Henry shaking his head and hiding his face in his hands from embarrassment. I don't see why. This is a valid argument to have. I pause briefly wondering where his loyalties lie in this particular fight.

"Hey Henry" I call and he groans, "Oh god no"

Regina smiles, "Henry, dear which ones should we get?"

He sighs before looking at me, "Sorry Dad, it's got to be the chocolate ones"

Regina fist-pumps the air in victory, "That's my boy" she smiles ruffling his hair affectionately before turning back to me, "Told you"

"My own son" I say dramatically, "My own son picking chocolate over peanuts" I mumble shaking my head not quite believing that they can't see the greatness of the peanut sweet.

"They're better" he says with a shrug.

"Lunacy. Utter lunacy" I mutter.

"So we can get the chocolate ones?" Regina asks still holding onto the brown bag as if it was the secret to immortality.

"I still think we should get the peanut ones" I argue back folding my arms. I will not lose my peanuts!

"Two against one" she argues back also folding her arms though she looks far more imperious than I do.

"Clearly you raised him to hate the peanuts so I think that's cheating"

"Maybe he just has good taste"

"For god's sake" Henry mutters before coming back up to both of us and taking both packets away. "Right" he says turning to us as we both stand hands out outstretched in the directions of our lost chocolates, "You two keep squabbling so now neither of you can have any"

"What?" I ask.

"That's not fair" Regina grumbles.

"Well Mom, when I misbehave I don't get chocolates so now since you two keep arguing you don't get any either" he replies with a stern expression.

Damn, his logic is good. I look to Regina to see if she has any way out of this but she looks just as floored as I do.

"But chocolate" she attempts to argue.

"No" he says, "Come on, we're going" at this he turns and waits for us to follow him out of the store.

"Thanks a lot" she mutters under her breath as we leave.

"You started it" I reply trying not to alert Henry who apparently is one hell of a disciplinarian. I'm betting he got that from Regina.

"Did not"

"Did too"

"You're the one who picked up the peanut ones"

"You're the one who wanted M&Ms"

"Chocolate ones"

"The peanut ones are better" I whisper back with a small grin as Henry suddenly tuts and shakes his head. "I thought I said to stop bickering"

"You realise we're the parents here right?" I ask in reply.

At this he merely rolls his eyes, "Yet I wasn't the one having an argument in the candy store about which M&Ms to buy"

"It's a very important discussion" Regina cuts in.

"It is not" Henry replies.

At this my sister and I share a glance, now in agreement, I speak up, "Henry, your favourite M&Ms is a very important life decision, you can't just rush into it"

"He's right, you have to think about it Henry and once you choose you must stand your ground"

At this he shakes his head, "They're M&Ms guys. M&Ms"

"So?"

"So, what's the big deal?" he asks.

"They're M&Ms Henry" Regina answers.

"So, Skittles are better anyway" he replies leaving us two stunned behind him. Skittles over M&Ms?!

_I have had this argument with my brothers, the crispy ones are the best ones. Thanks for reading :)_


	20. Because You're My Sister

_This is pretty short and I know it took ages for me to actually upload it but this will be the last chapter since I've run out of ideas this fic. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story and reviewed, followed, favourited and read it. Hope you like this last part :)_

We're sitting side by side on the pier neither one of us talking. I tried but Regina has been oddly quiet throughout our whole walk here.

"You okay?" I ask.

"I'm fine" she replies tersely staring down at her hands in her lap.

"Did you and Emma have a fight or something?"

She blinks confusedly, "No we're fine" I notice her swipe her thumb over the top of her lip and realise she's been doing that most of the morning. My brain clicks telling me what's wrong. I pause wondering if I should push her to share this but it's not good to bottle this kind of crap up. I clear my throat before speaking again staying focused on the waves in front of us.

"Dad became the dark one when I was fourteen. Before that I had friends, after everyone feared me, I think they assumed that I was as bad as he was. One day I went out into the woods, I used to like walking through them you know it was nice and peaceful. Anyway on this particular afternoon another kid was there, one I used to play at stick sword fighting with, and when he saw me he threatened me with a sharpened stick. It turned out Dad had killed his father over a petty theft so the kid came at me, caught me with the stick. I didn't know what to do so I ran. I knew I couldn't tell Dad because he'd kill this kid and in spite of his anger he still used to be my friend so I patched it up myself. Got stuck with this scar" I finish the story by lifting up the corner of my shirt so she can see the small scar on my side.

"I'm sorry" she says before clearing her own throat, "Why did you tell me that?"

"I'm your brother and you're my sister. If you want to talk about stuff you can talk to me ya know?"

She nods slowly clearly understanding why I shared that particular memory. "Thank you" she stares out to the sea for a few more moments before sniffing, "Growing up my mother had a lot of rules and I did my best to adhere to them but I was a child and sometimes it was just too difficult to obey them all. I was eight and I was running around the house, my mother told me to stop, that young ladies don't run around like that but as soon as she was gone I started running again. I tripped and knocked a vase over. I fell and landed face first in the pieces, one of them cut my lip. I went running to my mother thinking she'd fix it. Instead she yelled at me for running and made me clean up the broken pieces. I can still remember kneeling in all those shards of glass, crying as my mother watched, I can still taste the blood running down my lip and into my mouth as I swept them up. When I was done she grabbed me by the arm and threw me into my room" she finishes and swipes away a few angry tears at her mother's actions before running her thumb over the scar again.

I reach out and grab her hand. She grabs back and nods at me in thanks. We both go back to sitting and staring out to the waves of the pier hoping they can help us forget.

"Thank you for making me talk about it"

"That's okay"

"Why do you do it?"

"Why do I do what?"

"You always try and help me, people normally go out of their way to avoid helping me but from that day at Dad's shop you've always done your best to help me, why?" she frowns in genuine confusion and I feel a pang of sadness at how she truly doesn't seem to understand. I pause before giving the best answer I can,

"Because you're my sister"

_Thanks for reading :)_


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